


A Marriage of Convenience

by MDF007



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Light Angst, M/M, Oblivious Sokka (Avatar), Oblivious Zuko (Avatar), Past Jet/Zuko (Avatar), Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Period-Typical Homophobia, Pining, Slow Burn, The Gaang Learns How Zuko Got The Scar (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, sexual tension while sparring is actually something that can be so personal, so much pining, zuko and katara are bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MDF007/pseuds/MDF007
Summary: An old supporter of his father approaches Zuko with a long forgotten law that declares the Fire Lord must marry before his or her twentieth birthday or else pass the throne to the next in line-- that very general's son. With only three weeks until his twentieth birthday, Zuko enlists the help of his uncle and all of his friends to find love before he loses his title to another tyrannical ruler.But how is Zuko supposed to focus on finding love when the person he's been secretly in love with for years now, Sokka, is living in the palace and helping to set him up on hundreds of dates?TL;DR Zuko and Sokka are both oblivious and pining but don't worry there's a happy ending
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Iroh & The Gaang (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 54
Kudos: 762





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Before anyone says it, yes I am aware this is basically the plot of Princess Diaries 2 and no I did not think about that before I came up with it.
> 
> This is already completely written so I plan to update regularly! Not sure how many chapters I'll split it up into yet but it will be decently long.
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it :)

Zuko’s eyes were drifting shut again.

Or, rather, Zuko was trying his best not to let his eyes drift shut again. Somehow, he always managed to forget how boring these weekly town halls were. He had started them a year into his reign as Fire Lord as a way to connect with and listen to the people of his nation in a way his father had never attempted to. It was a good idea, and a popular decree with a majority of the people. However, it quickly became clear that the plight of the everyday fire nation citizen was, put kindly, extremely boring and, frankly, pretty inane.

Despite the weary repetitiveness of listening to fifty townsfolk in a row complain about noisy neighbors or escaped chickens, Zuko, determined as ever to be a good leader, sat and listened every week.

But not without difficulties.

The sleeplessness and nightmares had gotten better in the three years since he had taken the throne, but it turns out sixteen years of trauma doesn’t disappear overnight. There were still multiple nights a week Zuko lay awake, tortured by memories of Ozai and visions of Azula, flashbacks of war and feelings of inadequacy. And unfortunately, the week’s fits of insomnia often caught up with him at these Friday townhalls.

“And no matter how many times I tell them that I have work in the morning, those lousy teenagers are still out partying until dawn every night!”

Zuko pulled himself back from the edge of sleep and forced himself to focus on the man in front of him’s words as he sat up straighter, hoping no one had noticed him almost drifting off. “Yes, ahem, thank you for voicing your concerns Mr.—uh—”

“ _Lee_.” The man was looking rather annoyed, his fingers tapping agitatedly over his crossed arms.

“Yes, Mr. Lee. We’ll take your noise complaint under consideration and someone will be in touch within the next few weeks to see if there’s anything we can do.”

“But that’s not soon enough, I—”

“I’m sorry I think that’s all we have time for today.” Zuko began to stand, eager to get out of the meeting before Mr. Lee could keep him any longer. “If no one has anything else—”

“Request to raise an issue, Fire Lord Zuko.”

Zuko tried hard to stifle a groan and sat back down reluctantly. “Yes. Of course.” He said through gritted teeth, silently assuring himself _just the one more_ even as he agreed. When he looked up he was surprised to see not merely another concerned citizen but one of the Fire Nation’s own generals coming forward.

“General Qian.” Zuko nodded curtly. He didn’t care for Qian, who had always been open about his support for, as he judiciously put it, ‘some of Ozai’s past decisions’.

“Fire Lord Zuko.” Qian bowed respectfully, though his dislike for the young Fire Lord was clear in his face. “I have come here today to raise a very serious issue.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow, a signal for Qian to continue.

“As I am sure you are very well aware, Fire Nation law is as extensive and ancient as it is well respected and followed.” Qian began, looking around at the crowd that had gathered to hear his remarks. He smirked as if he enjoyed putting on a show for those watching curiously.

Zuko felt his patience growing thinner and thinner. “Yes, I’m sure we’re all aware. Please, continue.”

_Please get to the point before I jump out of this chair and strangle you to death_ , Zuko thought.

“Well, often old laws get buried in the extensive text, and it is up to the citizens of the Fire Nation who uncover these laws to bring them forward and see them enforced. Wouldn’t you agree, Fire Lord?”

“If the law is just.” Zuko was eyeing Qian suspiciously. He had no idea where this was going, but he had a feeling it was going to be bad.

“I was recently pouring over some old law books, and I came across a law that stated if the Fire Lord is over the age of twenty when he is crowned, he must be married in order to assume the position. And if a sitting Fire Lord is unmarried, he must marry by the time he is twenty or the throne will go to the next in line.”

Zuko’s heart dropped. Surely that couldn’t be true? He had been raised in a noble family and he had never heard of such a law. Another plot by some crazy goon of his father to overthrow him, that was all this was. His nostrils flared as he jumped up, unable to control his temper another moment.

“That’s a lie! You’ve made that law up!”

“Oh but I’m afraid I haven’t.” Qian was smirking openly at him now. He pulled out a dusty looking old book, bookmarked with a red ribbon. “I’ve brought the text with me, if you don’t believe me.”

Zuko glared as he marched toward Qian and grabbed the book from his hands.

“Don’t shoot the messenger.” Qian shrugged, smiling broadly as Zuko read and reread the law three times. It was true—written right there in bold in strokes in the first law book of his nation.

Zuko looked up at Qian, flustered and angry. “No one has ever enforced this rule before!” He argued, “I know for a fact my grandfather was not married when he took the throne at twenty-five!”

Qian shrugged again, looked past Zuko’s shoulder nonchalantly. “Like I said, its an old law. It must have been forgotten at some point. But now that I’ve brought it up, it is your duty as Fire Lord to uphold the laws of this nation.”

Zuko’s eyes flashed as he realized, panicked, what Qian was saying. “This is crazy! My twentieth birthday is in three weeks! How could you possibly expect me to find someone to marry before then?”

Qian smiled at Zuko before turning back slightly to the crowd, who was watching the general and Fire Lord face off with bated breath. “There is another way, you know.”

Zuko took a step back and just barely avoided tripping on his robes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you don’t want to get married, you can let the throne pass to the next in line.”

“I don’t have any children. So the next in line would be—?” Zuko was thinking through his family’s lineage when Qian interrupted him.

“My son. Ozai’s second cousin. Pantu.”

Zuko’s eyes widened as he saw a short, weaselly looking man come out from the confused crowd to stand by his father. With a cold sting of fear, Zuko realized he knew exactly who Pantu was. He had led the resistance movement that Zuko had worked hard to squash about a year ago to return to the ways of Ozai’s rule. He knew exactly what a world with Pantu as Fire Lord would look like—he had lived in it for sixteen years of his life, and he had the scars to prove it. Just like so many others.

He would die before he saw Pantu take the throne.

Zuko’s eyes narrowed.

“You. Why aren’t you in prison?” He spat, stepping towards Pantu threateningly.

Pantu put his hands up in mock surrender, feigning confusion. “Whatever would I be in prison for?”

“You were the leader of the resistance movement that tried to overthrow me!”

“That’s ridiculous! I’ve never been anything but faithful to the Fire Nation and its rulers. Do you have any proof of my so-called involvement in the movement?” Pantu was smiling at him as easily as Qian had. It made Zuko’s skin crawl.

“I saw you with my own eyes!”

“You must have been mistaken.” Pantu shrugged easily.

“There’s no need to get so worked up, Fire Lord.” Qian cut in smoothly. “If you wish to hold the throne, you simply need to marry before these three weeks are up. It shouldn’t be too hard, should it?”

Zuko blinked, then took a step backward, looking helplessly around at the gawking crowd. No one was stepping forward to defend him against the ridiculously archaic law. He was really going to have to do this. He was going to have to get married before his birthday in three weeks.

He was going to need to pay a visit to Uncle.

\---*---

“Uncle.”

“Fire Lord Zuko!” Iroh welcomed his nephew with outstretched arms, which Zuko fell gratefully into. It had been far too long since he had visited.

“I told you, just Zuko is fine.” Zuko mumbled into his uncle’s shoulder, flushing slightly, still not used to the official title coming out of Uncle’s mouth.

“Well then, ‘just Zuko’, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Iroh’s eyes twinkled mischievously as he pulled away from Zuko, though his face fell in concern as he noticed Zuko’s troubled expression. “From the look of your face, I worry that it is not a happy occasion.”

Zuko sighed as he sat down and recounted to Uncle the entire exchange from the townhall. He gratefully accepted the tea Iroh poured him as he finished explaining. Iroh sipped from his own tea, his face remaining impassive.

“I mean, its ridiculous!” Zuko exclaimed after a beat of troubled silence, slamming the tea down on the table and wincing as it splashed out, coating the table in sticky droplets. “Have you ever heard of such a law, Uncle?”

“I have not.” Iroh admitted, “But it sounds like Qian and Pantu mean business.”

“It’s impossible though!” Zuko threw a hand over his eyes in exasperation. “How am I supposed to fall in love and get married in three weeks?”

“Oh, so you want to be in love with whomever you marry?” Iroh was smiling at Zuko teasingly, and Zuko flushed, looking away awkwardly.

“I mean, yes? Doesn’t everyone?” He mumbled.

The problem was, he was in love. He had been for many years now. But the person he loved would never love him back, he knew that much without even having to ask. And he couldn’t tell Uncle who they were—not with them being a man.

A certain sarcastic water tribe man.

Iroh smiled warmly. “I’m only teasing you, nephew. It is a difficult task, yes, but not an impossible one. And not one you must undertake alone, either.”

Iroh patted Zuko on the back as he stood and began to clean the tea shop. Zuko had a sinking feeling as he contemplated what plans his uncle was already scheming.

“Tomorrow, I will go back to the Fire Nation with you. Tonight, you can stay here with me, and we will write to all your friends to come and help.”

“Uncle, my friends are busy with their own problems. They don’t have time to drop everything and come set me up on blind dates. The _Avatar_ doesn’t have time to drop everything and come set me up on dates.”

“Nephew, if you do not get married and Pantu is allowed to take the throne, it will be the end of harmony between the four nations, just as you said. Does that not sound like the Avatar’s business to you?”

Zuko shrugged weekly, unable to come up with a good excuse.

“And besides.” Iroh continued with a gentle smile. “They are your friends as well as just busy, important people. They will want to know what’s going on with you and they will want to help.”

Zuko’s shoulders sagged as he dropped his head onto the table. He knew his uncle was right, but he honestly couldn’t think of anything worse than three weeks of forced dating while his friends all sat around and laughed at him and all his awkward social interactions.

He figured this was probably what hell was like. Had he died and gone to hell? It would make sense.

“Now come, quit moping and find some paper. We’ll write to everyone. Toph, Aang, Katara. Oh, and of course, Sokka!”

Zuko’s heart officially dropped into the pit of his stomach. Nope, _this_ was hell.

He imagined going out on a million dates, pretending to try to fall in love with a million different women when the only man he _really_ loved played wingman, all the while blissfully oblivious to Zuko’s pathetic, all-consuming pining.

Yep, he was definitely in hell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean to write Zuko telling the gaang how he got his scar into this story but it happened by accident

Zuko and Iroh arrived in the Fire Nation the next afternoon, along with Toph. They hadn’t needed to wait long after sending her letter just across town before she was storming into the tea shop, cursing Pantu and Qian and everyone involved in enforcing the marriage law. Iroh left the room to prepare more tea for their guest, and Zuko and Toph sat down to catch up.

“Why do you sound so nervous about finding someone to marry, Sparky?” Toph asked once he had caught her up. “I’m sure there are plenty of women grasping for the chance to get their hands on you.”

Zuko was glad Toph couldn’t see him blushing as he looked up at the ceiling and swallowed thickly. “Yeah.” he agreed sarcastically, “Who doesn’t want to marry a nineteen-year-old with the weight of a nation on his shoulders and more daddy issues than anyone in the history of the world?”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Sunshine.” Toph was smiling gently at him, and despite his mortification at the situation, Zuko felt his heart warming for his friend. “You’ve got a great heart. And from what they tell me, you’re pretty easy on the eyes, too.” Toph winked and hit Zuko’s arm, hard. Zuko winced and pulled it away, rubbing the spot tenderly as he glared at Toph. He would never get used to her outpourings of ‘affection’.

“Oh, yes.” Iroh agreed with Toph, coming in at the end of her speech to pinch Zuko’s cheeks with an incredibly self-satisfied smile. “My Zuko is very handsome. He takes after his uncle!”

“Uncle, please!” Zuko batted his uncle’s hands away and rubbed at the cheek he had been pinching in annoyance. “You two better not be like this for the next three weeks.” he muttered as Iroh and Toph laughed heartily together.

Now, the three of them walked into the entrance of the Fire Nation palace to find Katara and Aang waiting for them with Momo at their feet.

“Zuko! Toph! General Iroh!” Aang yelled happily when they saw them approaching. They all ran towards each other, embracing happily.

“It’s been way too long.” Katara said happily, her eyes shut as she hugged Toph tightly.

“Yeah, it has.” Aang was smiling as he looked between Zuko and Toph. Zuko smiled back warmly. As fucked as this whole situation was, he _was_ overjoyed to see his friends.

“How have you guys been?” Zuko asked Katara and Aang.

“We’ve been really good.” Katara smiled at Aang, her eyes full of love, and Zuko felt the tiniest prick of jealousy at their happiness. Those eyes were all too familiar. They were the same as her brother’s, and what Zuko wouldn’t give to have those eyes look at him that way. He shook the thought away and smiled at the two. Spirits, Sokka wasn’t even here yet and he was already a mess.

“Better than you, it sounds like.” Aang’s eyes shone with concern and Zuko’s heart dropped disappointedly as he remembered why they were all here in the first place.

“I’m sorry about all of this, Zuko.” Katara spoke compassionately, looking similarly concerned. “No one should be forced into marriage like this, it’s insane.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the Fire Nation.” Zuko shrugged awkwardly.

“Can’t you just change the law? You are Fire Lord, after all.” Aang asked angrily.

“It isn’t that simple.” Zuko hung his head dejectedly. That had been his first thought as well, but the formal process to revoke such an old law would take ages—much longer than the three weeks which he had to marry, at least. And to sidestep the well-established rules for changing a law like that would risk throwing the nation into a full out state of anarchy—something that the world could not afford with potential leaders like Pantu on the prowl for power. No, the best way to ensure peace was preserved was to go through with the ridiculous stunt of getting married before time was up.

“Well, whatever the situation is, we’re here to help.” Katara stepped forward, her eyes shining with fierce determination. Zuko smiled at her gratefully. He remembered a time when the anger in her eyes had been directed at him. He felt grateful now to see it there in his defense instead. He felt lucky to have her as one of his best friends.

“Thank you, Katara.” He nodded with a small, bashful smile, before looking around to the rest of them. “Thank you all for coming to help. It really means a lot.”

“Thank you _all_? Aren’t you forgetting the most important person your royal jerkbending majesty?”

Zuko’s heart fluttered as he turned to see Sokka announcing his arrival with a smirk and his usual teasing air of bravado.

His breath caught in his throat as his eyes greedily raked over Sokka after not seeing him for close to a year. Somehow, he had gotten more handsome, growing taller and broader each month that went by without Zuko seeing him. His hair, as always swept back in his high ponytail, looked somewhat longer, and his jawline looked sharper.

“Sokka!” Katara’s overjoyed squeal broke Zuko out of his awkward reverie. He watched as Katara threw herself into her brother’s arms, both of them laughing happily.

He felt his neck prickle as if someone watched him and turned to see Toph staring at him cryptically. He felt his face heat up as he turned away quickly. Despite Toph’s blindness, he was feeling incredibly _seen_.

He was so lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t realize that everyone else, even Iroh, had already greeted Sokka while he continued to stand there dumbly.

“What, I come all this way to help you with your lady problems and you don’t even say hi?”

Zuko blinked as he realized Sokka was looking at him—what was that—nervously? Hopefully? Confused?

_Confused, dumbass_. Zuko inwardly cursed himself. _You’ve been standing here gawking at him like an idiot without saying anything for the last five minutes_.

With great effort, Zuko forced himself to smile normally as he rushed towards Sokka to embrace him. He felt Sokka melt into him with relief and it took everything in him not to bury his face in Sokka’s neck and just breath him in. Instead, he held Sokka as tightly as he could, allowing himself the moment to not worry and simply enjoy the fact that all of his friends were here, together.

After a long moment, he pulled back to smile at Sokka, who was looking back at him with a warm expression. Zuko’s stomach was twisting up in knots at Sokka looking at him so fondly.

“I’ve missed you, jerkbender.”

“I’ve missed you too, water tribe peasant.”

Sokka laughed loudly, and Zuko hardly realized they were still holding onto each other when Toph interrupted loudly.

“If you two are done making out over there, we’ve got to get going on finding Sparky a wife! We don’t have much time here!”

Zuko and Sokka jumped apart awkwardly, and Zuko turned quickly to hide from Sokka the blush creeping up his neck at Toph’s words. When he turned back, Sokka was staring at the back of his head with an unreadable expression.

_He’s probably wondering why you’re being so weird_. Zuko thought. _Get a grip, you idiot!_

“Oh Toph, how I’ve missed your gentle encouragement.” Sokka retorted, coming forward to put a hand on Toph’s small shoulders. She smirked and hit him in the arm, causing him to wince slightly and roll his eyes.

“Well, lucky for all of you, the plan guy is here now, and I’ve been doing my homework on the way here.” Sokka announced, pulling out a large scroll. “And I’ve got a list of all the eligible ladies in the Fire Nation right here.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Good thinking, Sokka!” Aang excitedly patted Zuko on the back and Zuko winced.

“Let’s get to work, everyone! Operation ‘Find Zuko a Wife’!”

Zuko almost moaned out loud in pain.

_Spirits_. He thought as he followed the others into the meeting room. _Here we go._

\----*----

“Alright everyone, make yourself comfortable. I’ve got a list of potential ladies for our little lover boy here.” Sokka made himself comfortable at the front of the room while everyone else gathered in the chairs facing him. Zuko settled himself down on the couch next to Uncle and tried his best to remain calm.

“Are you determined to make this worse for me than it already is?” Zuko scowled at Sokka. Sokka, to Zuko’s embarrassment, simply winked back as he whipped out his prepared scrolls.

Because of _course_ Sokka had prepared a presentation.

“Alright. So I browsed through the records of unmarried Fire Nation women on the boat over here, and I think I’ve got a _pretty_ comprehensive list compiled.” Sokka pushed on, unrolling the scroll to reveal the first picture of a very young-looking girl.

“Tai Maihong.” He read the name before looking to the others for approval.

Zuko stared at him incredulously for a moment before exploding. “She’s, like, twelve!”

“So?” Sokka argued back defensively. “So was Aang when him and Katara got all oogie with each other.”

“When we _started dating_.” Katara corrected him, already annoyed by her brother’s antics. “And I was only a couple years older than him!”

“Yeah, and I’m almost _twenty_.” Zuko glared at him pointedly.

“Ok, ok. So it’s a no on Tai.” Sokka finally gave up, putting his hands up in surrender. “What about… Maru Lee.” he held up the next picture and everyone’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Iroh started laughing, stopping short when Zuko threw him a deadly look.

“She’s, like, eighty!” Zuko exclaimed, gesturing at the photo in disbelief.

Sokka shrugged, unbothered. “Some guys like older women. Guess you’re not one of them.” He held up the next picture and began to read the name. “Ok, how about Mai—”

“ _My ex-girlfriend?_ Are you kidding me, Sokka?” Zuko stood up angrily.

“What? You guys got along once!” Sokka defended himself, taking a challenging step towards Zuko.

“Why are you making a big joke out of this? Do you realize that this is serious?” Zuko accused angrily. His face burned. He was humiliated enough having his friends help him ‘shop’ for a wife like this. About being so unlovable that he needed this much help just to find a date. And now his best friend, the man he was secretly in love with, was basically laughing in his face about it.

“Of course I do!” Sokka argued back, also angry, although Zuko couldn’t figure out why. Actually, now that he realized it, Sokka looked _pissed_ at Zuko. As if he had asked for all this trouble. “It’s harder than you think to find eligible women in the Fire Nation! There aren’t as many as you’d think!”

“Guys! Both of you need to calm down, alright? We’re all here to help Zuko, as _friends_.” Aang stood up and spoke firmly. Both Zuko and Sokka looked down at the ground in shame before giving up and sitting down at the Avatar’s orders.

“I think I can help.” Iroh announced calmly, standing in their place. “I have a registry here of all of the single women in the nation. I think it is best if we just start at the top and go down alphabetically. We can get through as many as we can today.”

“Speed dating!” Aang cheered excitedly. “Great idea, General Iroh!”

“We’ll have to make Zuko presentable, first.” Katara smirked, shoving Zuko teasingly.

“Great.” Zuko mumbled, staring resolutely at the floor. “Sounds like _loads_ of fun.”

Iroh smiled at his nephew kindly, patting his back. “Remember why you are doing this, Zuko.”

Zuko looked up and nodded at Iroh once, determined, and Iroh nodded back encouragingly.

“Now, I’ll go see to all the arrangements for the dates. Maybe you kids can do something with my nephew’s hair while I’m gone.” He winked and ruffled Zuko’s hair on his way out. Zuko’s hands flew to it self-consciously.

“What’s wrong with it?” He called after his uncle’s retreating form.

“Yay, makeover time for Zuko!” Katara laughed teasingly, grabbing Zuko by the elbow and pulling him up and away towards his own bed chambers. Zuko groaned as the others laughed and followed after them. The only one trailing behind was Sokka, who was still looking put-out over their argument. On the walk down the halls, Sokka caught Zuko’s arms and pulled him away from the others quietly. They subtly fell behind and Zuko looked in surprise at Sokka staring at him.

“Look, I’m sorry if I upset you. I am taking this seriously, I promise. I guess I just…lost my touch or something.” Sokka shrugged sheepishly and offered a small smile.

Zuko eyed Sokka curiously. If there was one thing he knew wasn’t true, it was that Sokka had lost his touch. If anything, he’d just grown more skilled and strategic in the work he’d been doing since the war. Maybe Sokka really just thought that that was the kind of women Zuko deserved. His heart fell as he realized the idea, but he guess he couldn’t blame Sokka for that.

He was probably right, after all.

Zuko returned Sokka’s smile tightly. “It’s ok, Sokka. I’m just a little…touchy right now, I guess. With everything going on.”

Sokka’s smile grew at Zuko’s acceptance of his apology. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but they had reached their destination, and Aang and Katara were already yanking Zuko away towards the mirror.

Zuko allowed Katara to sit him down in the chair and brush out his hair. It still wasn’t very long—not like his father’s had been—but it was longer than the last time they had all been here together. It actually felt sort of nice to have someone brush his hair—Mai used to sometimes, but it had been a long time since he had experienced this particular sort of intimacy. He caught Sokka staring at them in the mirror as Katara worked. Maybe he was still upset about earlier.

Aang was doing his best to help by rifling through Zuko’s closet while Zuko, trapped in the chair by Katara’s hands, yelled at him to stay out of his stuff.

“Zuko, all your clothes look the same.” Aang complained as he passed over several pairs of the same official Fire Lord attire.

“It’s the traditional, approved wardrobe for the Fire Lord.” Zuko defended himself.

“Well do you have anything less… scary?” Aang ducked out of the closet to look at Zuko nervously.

Zuko scowled. “They only look scary because it’s what my father always wore. That’s not my fault.”

“Oh, here’s something!”

Aang had retreated deep into the closet and pulled out something that Zuko had stuffed away the day the attendants brought him all of the traditional clothing. Seeing it now, he wished he had burned it on the spot.

His mouth suddenly felt like it was full of cotton and he tried hard to swallow, but instead his throat clenched up and clicked audibly.

“No.” He finally choked out. “Not that.”

“Really?” Aang asked. He was still staring at the clothes and therefore did not see the way all of the color had drained from Zuko’s face. “It looks a lot nicer than all that super formal stuff, though—”

“You ok, Sparky? I can feel your heartrate going through the roof from here.” Toph interrupted, sounding concerned. Aang finally stopped talking and looked up to see Zuko shaking slightly.

“Are you ok, Zuko?” Katara had stopped with his hair and was now rubbing his arm soothingly. Sokka frowned and stood from where he had been sitting on the bed.

“I’m fine.” Zuko looked away from Aang holding the clothes and focused on breathing. He was fine. He was here, safe with his friends, and Ozai was far away locked up where he couldn’t hurt Zuko anymore.

The memories still hurt, though.

When he had somewhat regained his breathing, he looked up to see that Aang had put the clothes back in the closet and was now standing with Katara, looking worried. Kneeling at his side now was Sokka, who had a hand on his knee and was looking at him with eyes shining full of concern.

It was his presence that gave him the strength to say, “Those were the clothes my father was wearing the day he—the day he gave me this.” He gestured weakly to his scar.

His friends gasped and he looked up in surprise to see them all staring at him in shock. With a start, Zuko realized that only Toph appeared to understand what he was talking about.

“Wait, you guys didn’t—don’t you guys know? I thought everyone knew.” his stomach was starting to turn uncomfortably. He hadn’t wanted to get into the whole story right now. He assumed everyone in the world had heard the gossip about the banished prince.

“I know, Sparky.” Toph finally spoke up, breaking through all of them to take his larger hand in her small one. “I was raised in a noble family, so I heard the story when I was younger, though I never knew for sure if it was true.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Sokka cut in, sounding almost angry. “What’s going on? Your _father_ did that to you? I always assumed it was some kind of accident.”

Zuko hung his head in shame and laughed bitterly. “It was no accident.”

He was grateful for Toph’s hand in his as he spoke. “When I was thirteen, I attended a war meeting. The generals were planning to invade Earth Kingdom troops with new Fire Nation recruits. It was a suicide mission—they were planning to use our people as bait.”

“That’s horrible.” Katara frowned, grabbing onto Aang’s hand by her side.

“That’s what I told them.” Zuko nodded at her. “But it wasn’t my place to speak up, and I was challenged to an Agni Kai for my disrespect—a fire duel.”

“They made you fight a seasoned war general at thirteen? For speaking out of turn?” Sokka sounded appalled at the idea. Zuko almost laughed at how he wished that were what happened.

“I thought I would be fighting the general, too. But when I got there and turned to face my opponent, it was my father.”

“You had to duel your own father?” Aang gasped.

“I refused.” Zuko said, tucking his head away to hide the tears that were already springing up. It was nearly seven years ago at this point, and the memory still stung. He hated himself for allowing his father’s abuse to make him feel weak even all these years later.

“I said that I wouldn’t fight him. He told me to get up and fight, said that I had shown shameful weakness. He said that I would ‘learn respect’ and that ‘suffering would be my teacher’. Then he reached down and did this.” He pointed to his scar and felt Toph’s hand tighten in his. He squeezed back gratefully.

“He banished me from the Fire Nation. I could only return with my honor when I had captured the Avatar.” He looked at Aang pointedly, who was visibly tearing up at the story.

“But, wait,” Katara sounded horrified. “Aang hadn’t even returned at that point. Finding the Avatar would be a hopeless mission.”

Zuko nodded solemnly, knowing what they were all thinking, what it had taken him years to realize.

_His father had never meant for him to return_.

They were all silent for a minute, before Sokka finally stood up.

“Where’s Ozai’s cell?” he sounded murderous, and when Zuko turned to look at him, his eyes were full of fire.

“Sokka, no.” Zuko sighed. “It was seven years ago. It won’t do any good.”

“I’m with Sokka.” Toph cracked her knuckles furiously. “I’m going to kill this guy. Let me talk to him.”

Zuko laughed bitterly, “Trust me, talking to him does no good either.”

“What do you mean, Zuko?” Katara was glaring at him accusingly and Zuko shifted uncomfortably, realizing he had yet again revealed another secret.

“Oh, I uh, tried talking to Ozai a few times right after he was imprisoned.”

“Zuko, _why_?” Aang pleaded with him, his eyes full of sorrow. “After everything he did to you, why would you ever want to talk to him?”

Zuko shrugged, looking away. “I don’t know. To get answers? Revenge, maybe? It didn’t help, though. Just more lies and manipulation. So I gave it up.”

He looked up to see his friends looking at him suspiciously, and he felt rage build up inside him. None of them knew what it was like to grow up with Ozai as a father, to crave his approval even while realizing him for the monster he was.

“I did stop!” Zuko challenged them, his eyes flashing. “He was just messing with my head, like always. As soon as I realized it, I stopped visiting him!”

“We believe you, Zuko.” Aang was quick to reassure him, but Zuko didn’t miss the doubt lingering in both Sokka and Katara’s eyes.

“Zuko, I’m so sorry that happened to you. And I’m sorry we didn’t know.” Katara finally spoke up, pulling Zuko out of his chair and into a fierce hug. Zuko froze, surprised, but quickly melted into her embrace, squeezing his eyes shut as he accepted her comfort. Before long he felt the rest of his friends joining in, enveloping him in a bone crushing group hug until he started to feel like he couldn’t breathe.

“Uh—guys? Thanks for the support and all, but you’re kind of crushing me.”

They all laughed and pulled away, and Zuko smiled at them all, feeling incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful. He didn’t miss how the others were brushing away a few stray tears on his behalf.

“Well, nothing like a little rehashing of old trauma before a date.” Sokka winked at Zuko, patting him on the back, and Zuko almost screamed as he remembered the slew of dates waiting for him.

Honestly, he’d rather go see Ozai in his cell than have forced conversations with a hundred different women right now.

“Come on, Zuko, let’s fix you up.” Katara smiled, reaching out to brush away the last of his stray tears before going back to work on his hair.

Eventually Aang found a suitable outfit (that didn’t force him to relive years of repressed trauma) and Katara followed him into the closet after he had finished changing to put the final touches on his hair. When she came out, Aang, Sokka, and Toph were all sitting on the bed looking varying degrees of bored.

“Presenting the very eligible bachelor, Fire Lord Zuko!” Katara announced teasingly, before stepping out of the way to allow a very embarrassed and self-conscious Zuko to make his entrance.

Toph whistled loudly, smirking as she said, “I have no idea what you look like, but I’m assuming its good.”

“He looks very handsome.” Katara assured Toph with a smirk, causing Zuko to blush even darker.

He did indeed look very handsome. It seemed he had been paying less and less attention to his appearance every year since he became Fire Lord. He was just so busy, and with each new problem, what he looked like in the morning slowly just fell to the back of his mind. But, in all fairness, he had grown to be a quite attractive man, and a little care given to his hair and clothes had made all the difference in highlighting that.

“You look great, Zuko.” Aang smiled encouragingly.

Zuko subconsciously looked to Sokka for approval before he realized he was doing it. Sokka smiled and gave him a thumbs up, but there was something weird in his expression that made Zuko’s bashful smile falter.

_He thinks I look dumb_.

Zuko pushed the thought away. He didn’t have time for it, and it didn’t matter what Sokka thought anyway. He would never feel that way about Zuko, and by the end of the next three weeks, Zuko would be married to someone else anyway.

He resolutely ignored the wave of nausea at that thought.

Iroh chose that moment to return, knocking once before pushing open the door and smiling at them all. “Everything is ready for the first round of dates, they’re all waiting for you in the throne room. You look very nice, nephew.”

Zuko groaned, walking towards his uncle and allowing Iroh to loop an arm around his shoulder comfortingly as they departed. “Why does it have to be the throne room?”


	3. Chapter 3

Zuko was no expert on dating. His only real relationship had been with Mai (except for the brief thing he had with Jet on the boat to Ba Sing Se, which he had sworn he would take with him to the grave. Although Zuko wouldn’t exactly consider that a ‘relationship’, anyway. Especially not considering how badly it had ended when they got to Ba Sing Se) and they had known each other since childhood, so there was no real need for awkward courting and first dates. Besides that, he had been on exactly one date, with Jin in the Earth Kingdom, and he had spent the entire time so stuck in his head he had hardly said ten words to her by the time the night ended.

On top of that, Zuko wasn’t exactly known for his social skills or outgoing personality. So, it was no surprise that the speed dating did not exactly go well.

It didn’t help that, as Zuko put it later when recounting the disaster to his friends, most of these women were ‘ _absolutely crazy_ ’.

Half of the women who showed up were just there to try to get their hands on the throne, _or_ just to get their hands on Zuko ( _weird?_ ). Some of the women were nice, but were almost certainly disappointed to show up, excited to get to know the mysterious banished-prince-turn-fire-lord, only to find Zuko, awkwardly twiddling his thumbs and answering their questions with short, one-word answers and silently praying for this to be over as soon as possible.

The first women he spoke with was nice enough, he supposed. But about two minutes into talking it became clear that she mothered worse than Katara, and Zuko quickly excused himself before she could start pinching his cheeks and calling him cute.

The next one, a woman named Ra who was very pretty, made her intentions very clear almost the second she introduced herself. She was very forward in telling Zuko how attractive she found him, and offered to go somewhere more private to find out how compatible they were. She went so far as to say she’d be willing to see him later that night even if things didn’t work out romantically. Zuko, blushing and wide eyed, motioned over her shoulder to have the next candidate brought in immediately.

The next woman to arrive was old enough to be Zuko’s mother. She had a large mole right above her lip that Zuko found he couldn’t stop himself from staring at as she shoved biscuits in her mouth and asked what his intentions were with her. He began to stammer out a reply that his intentions were simply to get to know everyone, but she angrily cut him off saying that if he wasn’t willing to commit, she wouldn’t be wasting her time. She was too old to spend her energy on silly boys who didn’t know what they wanted anyway. She left in a huff, leaving a bewildered Zuko behind.

Then there was a woman named Jee, who reminded him far too much of Azula. She was clearly here with one thing in mind: Power. Zuko managed to tolerate her for about two minutes before not so subtly suggesting she was far too similar to certain family members for his taste and wishing her all the best.

There were a few dates that didn’t go so horribly. A woman named Zo who he didn’t mind talking to about several new fire bending forms. Someone named Zamuh who praised his work so far as Fire Lord and listened interestedly as he discussed some of his new foreign policy plans, even chipping in to agree or disagree at certain points. A woman named Irulah who fed the turtleducks that he loved to watch every morning.

By the end of the day, after meeting what felt like a hundred women, Zuko had a solid list of about ten potential partners to ponder with his friends, which he brought back along with plenty of stories about the experience.

Iroh had long gone to sleep, but the rest of the gang had stayed up in Zuko’s room to discuss his options. Or, in the case of Toph and Aang, to laugh at Zuko’s misfortune as he told them about all of his worst dates.

“Wait, wait,” Toph was wiping tears out of her eyes, flopped across Zuko’s bed as she tried to stop laughing long enough to talk. “Tell us again what that one woman said when she was talking to you. The one who offered to ‘take you somewhere more private’.”

Zuko flushed and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, unable to help cracking a tiny smile at the memory. “She told me to stand up and turn around so she could get a better look at me.”

They all burst out laughing and Zuko threw a pillow at Toph, though he was still smiling along with them. “It’s not funny.” He insisted, “I swear this has been one of the worst days of my life. Including the day my father banished me.”

Katara, Toph, and Aang giggled, but Sokka had stopped laughing altogether.

“You shouldn’t joke about that.” He said with a frown.

Zuko looked over at Sokka in surprise. If he could joke about it, shouldn’t they be able to laugh along with him? After all, it had happened to _him_. “It happened so long ago, Sokka. It’s just a little joke, anyway.”

“It happened long ago for _you_. _We_ just learned about it today.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t press the issue. He didn’t want to start another fight, especially not when they had been having so much fun all together before. He realized that he and Sokka had been doing an awful lot more fighting than normal since he’d been there. He wondered, panicked, if he had done something to upset him. He didn’t know how Zuko felt about him, did he? There would be no way, he had never told a single person. Was he that obvious, though?

“Anyway,” Katara cut in, breaking the tension and stopping Zuko’s spiraling as she looked between them with her eyes narrowed in confusion, “You have a decent list here. That’s a good place to start.”

“Yeah.” Zuko sighed flopping down on the bed next to Toph and batting her away when she hit him with the pillow he had thrown at her earlier in retaliation. “Although if I never go on another date again, it will be too soon.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to have to go on another one tomorrow.” Aang said, patting Zuko’s knee sympathetically even as he grumbled in annoyance.

“Here, we’ll start easy. How about you take this first girl out tomorrow. Irulah. You both like the turtleducks, so take her to the turtleduck pond at the palace. Just get to know each other.” Katara smiled at him gently.

Zuko sighed but nodded, staring at the ceiling. “Alright, I guess that doesn’t sound so bad. I’ll send word to her tomorrow morning to ask.”

“It’s getting late.” Sokka stood abruptly, and they all turned to see him walking out of the room without so much as another glance back. “Goodnight, everyone.”

“Goodnight!” Katara called after him, frowning at his retreating form as he slammed the door.

Zuko sat up and stared after him in confusion. He blinked and looked around at the others nervously. “Did I do something to make him angry? I feel like he’s been weirdly… tense. Since he’s gotten here.”

Katara smiled at him sympathetically. “I’m sure he’s just tired. It was a long trip to get here. You didn’t do anything wrong, Zuko.”

He nodded at her, wordlessly, before turning back to look at the door which Sokka had just left through. He felt the empty space near him where Sokka had been sitting like a missing limb.

“Sokka’s right though, I think. It is pretty late. And you’ve got a big day tomorrow.” Aang smiled and nudged Zuko as he stood and took Katara’s hand. “Let’s get some sleep. Goodnight everyone!”

“Goodnight!” Katara called back as she followed Aang out.

“Goodnight, Sparky. Get your beauty rest.” Toph hit him as she followed him out and Zuko was left alone to sit and wonder what he had done to piss Sokka off.

\---*---

Zuko gave up trying to sleep after about three hours of tossing and turning. His head was swimming with anxiety about his date tomorrow, worries about finding a wife in time, thoughts about Sokka, and now the freshly dug up trauma surrounding Ozai and that fateful Agni Kai.

He decided a walk would do well to help clear his mind. It was a particularly warm night, and he was wearing little besides an old pair of thin pajama pants. He contemplated briefly grabbing some sort of robe, but decided against it, guessing he would see no one save a few guards. And he was far too tired at the moment to care what they thought of him anyway.

He slipped on a pair of shoes and reached for the door, opening it blearily and almost crying out in surprise when he found none other than Sokka standing there, his hand raised as if he were just about to knock.

“Zuko!” he exclaimed at the same time Zuko said “Sokka?”

Zuko poked his head out the door to peer down the hall. “Where are the guards?”

“They said they were doing a quick round of the hall. Why, do you want them to come back to throw me out?” Sokka was teasing him. Zuko blinked. It was far too late for him to process any of this. Or early? He honestly had no idea.

“No, of course not, I just—uh, what’s up?” Mentally, Zuko was hitting himself in the face.

Sokka shrugged, looking uncharacteristically sheepish. “I couldn’t sleep. I thought maybe you wouldn’t be able to either. I remember you saying a while ago that you had trouble sleeping sometimes.”

Zuko blinked again, his brain slowly working as he processed what Sokka was saying to him. Zuko had told him that years ago. He still remembered? “Um, yeah. You were right. I was just about to go on a walk, do you want to come?”

Sokka smiled and nodded once before his eyes began to drift downward to Zuko’s chest, as if only just realizing his state of undress. Zuko blushed immediately. He too had forgotten he was practically naked. Sokka had seen him shirtless plenty of times, but there was something in this moment that felt distinctly different from any of those other time.

“Let me just, uh, grab a robe or something.” Zuko quickly said before ducking back into the room. Sokka simply nodded and waited outside wordlessly. If Zuko didn’t know any better, he could have sworn he saw Sokka blushing as well.

As soon as Zuko was out of Sokka’s sight he scrunched his eyes up tightly and pounded at his forehead with his fist.

“ _Stupid_.” He muttered quietly to himself as he grabbed something to cover himself with. “At this rate, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he knew. The whole _world_ probably knows, I’m so obvious and awkward. Spirits of the Islands.”

He took a few deep breaths and then opened the door to find Sokka leaning against the door frame, waiting for him. He perked up when he saw Zuko and Zuko couldn’t help but smile back in the dark.

“Come on, this way.” Zuko said and began walking down the hall to head outside. Sokka trotted after him until they were matching strides, walking side by side down the long halls.

“So why couldn’t you sleep?” Sokka asked conversationally, though there was a of twinge concern evident in his tone.

“Oh, you know. Just… a lot going on right now.” Zuko kept his response vague for fear he would reveal too much again. “What about you?”

“Something like that.” Sokka mumbled, staring straight ahead.

Zuko halted his steps looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean? What’s going on with you?”

Sokka stopped and looked at him almost sadly, thinking for a moment before shaking his head dismissively. He started to walk again so that Zuko had no choice but to follow after him. “Just… Water Tribe business, travel, that sort of thing.”

Zuko looked at Sokka guiltily as they reached the turtleduck pond and sat down on the moonlight drenched bench. He knew from the beginning that his friends were too busy to just drop everything to come and help him. He felt like such an idiot.

“You can leave if you have more important things to attend to, Sokka. I know this is kind of…silly.”

“No!” Sokka quickly said, looking at Zuko with wide eyes. “That’s not what I meant, Zuko. I want to be here for you, I really do. I promise. I just have… a lot going on in my head right now, is all.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Now Zuko was looking at Sokka with concern. He hated the idea of the usually loud and funny and sarcastic man he knew being stressed out about anything.

“Not really.”

Zuko nodded wordlessly. He could understand that. They sat there in silence, watching the turtleducks bob in the water for a moment before Zuko couldn’t take it anymore.

“Are you—did I do something? To make you mad at me?”

Sokka looked at Zuko in surprise and guilt. “No! Why would you think that?”

“Just because, it seems like we’ve really been fighting a lot, and then earlier when you left so abruptly before bed—”

Sokka muttered something under his breath before turning back to look at Zuko, his eyes shining bright in the moon’s light. “Listen, I’m sorry I’ve been in a weird mood. It’s really not your fault, it’s me. And I guess hearing that thing about your dad earlier kind of threw me off even more.”

“It really was a long time ago, Sokka. And it’s not like you didn’t already know my father was a bad guy.”

“Yes, but what he did to you was horrifying, Zuko!” Sokka cut him off angrily. “And the way you talk about it makes it seem like you don’t think it’s a big deal anymore. Sometimes you almost sound like you think you… deserved it.” Sokka faltered slightly, sounding almost terrified to speak these words, but he did all the same.

Zuko tilted his chin up and looked at Sokka defiantly. “I did. For a while after it happened, I did. But I don’t anymore.”

“Are you sure you don’t?” Sokka challenged him right back, his voice unwavering, and Zuko felt his heart clenching in some weird mix of anger, respect, and love for his persistence.

“Yes, I’m sure. That’s why I talk about it like it isn’t as big of a deal. I know what he did was wrong, and it made me who I am today. But I refuse to give him that power over me anymore. Its not my fault and it never was, and that part of my life is in the past now. It’s behind me.”

Zuko realized as he spoke that he hadn’t even understood himself why the Agni Kai felt less important with each passing year. It still stung to think about, and there was a part of him that would always be angry and hurt. But he had his friends now, and he had Uncle, and he was a better person for it.

Sokka’s gaze was softening into something like admiration or fondness as Zuko spoke, and when he finished, Sokka reached out and took Zuko’s hand. Zuko’s heart was slamming in his chest. He couldn’t deny how good his hand felt in Sokka’s rough, calloused one.

“Good.” Sokka said firmly, after a moment. “Because it wasn’t your fault. How someone could do that to their own son—” he trailed off and shook his head. “Anyway. You’re a better man than your father could ever hope to be, Zuko. And you’re a great Fire Lord.”

Zuko gave Sokka a small smile, unsure what to say. Because despite all the doubts constantly swarming in his head, when Sokka said these things, he believed it. He believed it because he knew Sokka would never lie to him. Before he could think of anything to say, Sokka let go of his hand. Zuko mourned its loss silently.

“Can I ask you one more thing?” Sokka sounded nervous again and Zuko nodded, feeling his own heart rate pick up once more.

“You said that right after the war, you visited Ozai in prison.”

“Yes.” Zuko nodded, feeling his mouth go dry. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“And you said that you haven’t gone to see him since those first few months.”

Zuko looked away nervously. “Yeah?”

Sokka waited until Zuko looked back at him to level him with a penetrating gaze. “Is that true?”

Zuko stared straight up at the sky. He wanted so badly to lie, but he knew he couldn’t. Not to Sokka—not again.

“No.” he sighed, looking down at the turtleducks quacking happily up at him. He felt sick whenever he thought about visiting his father in prison. “I’ve gone once or twice every year since he’s been locked up there.”

“Why, Zuko?” Sokka sounded exasperated, and Zuko felt himself grow slightly annoyed at it. Sokka didn’t understand, he had a father who loved him unconditionally. Zuko’s situation was… complicated. And he was still young. That’s what everyone always seemed to forget. It really hadn’t been all that long since Ozai had turned against him for good. It was hard to forget all the time before that so quickly. Even if it had never been that good, it hadn’t all been bad.

“I don’t know.” Zuko threw back, unintentionally letting some of his frustration leech into his voice. “Guilt? Maybe I can’t let go of the hope that he’s finally changed? Look, I know he’s a bad guy, ok? I’m not stupid. But… he’s still my father. I don’t know if he ever loved me, but I remember a time when he at least sort of acted like he did sometimes. It’s a low bar, I know, but I can’t forget that, and I can’t just let go overnight of all those years that I blindly loved him. I guess there’s just some… naïve part of me that’s clinging to the hope that one day he’ll be different.”

Sokka was listening intently, and Zuko knew they both heard what he really meant when he said that he still hoped that one day he would “be different”.

_One day he might love me._

To Zuko’s surprise, Sokka didn’t fight him anymore. Instead, he simply said, “I hope one day you can let go of him. I’m so, _so_ sorry that he didn’t love you like you deserve. But you have your uncle. And—all of us. And I’m sorry, I just don’t think Ozai is good for you.”

“You’re probably right.” Zuko admitted, biting his lip to keep from crying in front of Sokka for the second time today. “I just can’t let go yet.”

“And that’s ok.” Sokka gripped his arm comfortingly. “But know that I’ll be here for you when you are ready.”


	4. Chapter 4

Neither Sokka nor Zuko got much sleep when they finally got back to their respective rooms that night. The next morning, they all met up for breakfast, and neither one made any mention of their late-night conversation. It was pretty easy to blend in with all the commotion of having the entire crew back together. Toph kept using her metal bending to send spoons flying across the table at Aang, claiming that he was ‘getting rusty’, and Katara was scolding them both as Aang retaliated by shooting a gust of wind that sent tea and rice flying all over Toph’s hair and lap. Sokka was finding this hysterical, laughing loudly, until Toph sent a butter knife flying his way with an annoyed ‘what are you laughing at?’.

Zuko had his head in his hands. He had not gotten nearly enough sleep for this. He thought about the family meals he used to have at this same table. Cold and stiff, with his father grilling him and Azula about their training and accusing Zuko of falling behind his sister.

If only Ozai could see his breakfast table now.

“The invitations were sent out to the first few women on the list, Fire Lord Zuko.” Iroh was telling him over the ruckus, completely unbothered by the spoons and food flying around behind him. “You’re to meet with Irulah at the turtleduck pond at noon.”

“Bring her flowers, girls love that!” Sokka chimed in, tuning into Iroh’s words as he shoved rice into his mouth.

“Thanks for the advice, Sokka.” Zuko responded dryly as Sokka launched into a story of how he tried to bring a girl flowers once, and when she found a bee in them, she sent a whole swarm after him.

“Uncle, can I talk to you for a minute?” Zuko asked quietly while everyone else was distracted with Sokka’s tale.

“Of course, nephew.” Iroh stood and followed Zuko out of the room, smiling expectantly when they were out of earshot of the rest.

Zuko coughed nervously. “So, I know that many Fire Nation citizens, particularly older or more conservative citizens, um, look down on same-sex marriages?”

Iroh nodded patiently, giving no indication of knowing what Zuko was getting at.

“But I was just wondering whether that was an, uh, actual law? Or just opinions?”

“Well, there used to be a law, but it was repealed a year or so before your great-grandfather’s reign. And then, of course, your grandfather and father didn’t do much to sway public opinion after.””

Zuko nodded bitterly. He knew all too well his father’s opinions on same-sex relationships. He remembered several off-hand comments growing up that slowly built up a wall in Zuko when he began to realize his own attraction to men. He also remembered coming home from school one day, when he was very young, talking about a boy in his class whom he had developed a crush on. It was an innocent, young crush. But Ozai had been firm in telling him he was confused, and that boys didn’t feel that way about other boys. He made sure to beat any desire to share such things out of Zuko that day.

Iroh, however, was still giving no indication how he, personally, felt about same-sex relationships, which had been Zuko’s goal in this conversation. Zuko bit the inside of his cheek in frustration. He couldn’t risk giving too much away. He knew his uncle was completely different from his father, but he was still an older Fire Nation citizen. For all Zuko knew, his uncle felt the same as his father about such things. And Zuko didn’t know if he could take it if his uncle thought he was a disgrace.

“Why do you ask, Zuko?” Uncle prodded him patiently. Zuko shook his head dismissively.

 _Forget it_ , he thought, _it’s not like it matters now anyway._

“I just want to understand the laws of the nation better.” he lied, looking to the side.

Iroh smiled and patted him on the back. “Very wise of you, nephew.”

“Zuko!” they turned back when Aang called out. The table was completely destroyed at this point, and Zuko noticed the servants looking distraught in the corner by the mess.

“Let’s get you ready for your date!”

\----*----

Zuko got back from his date that evening to an eager audience.

“Well? How did it go?” Katara was the first to excitedly ask.

“Actually… pretty ok?” Zuko sounded pleasantly surprised. “We had stuff in common, and it was sort of nice talking to her.”

“Aw, Zuko!” Aang cooed, “That’s great!”

“Yeah. I, uh, asked her if she wanted to hang out again tomorrow. After my date with Zo.”

“Yeah, Zuko!” Sokka cut in enthusiastically. Maybe a little _too_ enthusiastically? Zuko blinked in amusement, taking a step back from Sokka’s ball of pure energy. “You know what we need to do? We need to celebrate! Let’s get drunk!”

Zuko scoffed. “I’d love to Sokka, but I still have work to do. With all this marriage stuff I’ve been neglecting my duties as Fire Lord. I have a mountain of paperwork to go through tonight.”

“You deserve to relax with your friends, Fire Lord Zuko.” Iroh cut in, coming to place a reassuring hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “Let me go through your paperwork. I’ll send what you need to sign along your way and get rid of the rest.”

“I can’t ask you to do that, Uncle.” Zuko responded, surprised.

“Please, I insist. What else am I going to do, go to sleep at 4 PM again? I’m old, but I’m not that old.” Iroh joked.

“Well—if you’re sure you don’t mind, I—”

“I would be glad to, nephew. Please, have fun with your friends. It does my heart good to see you happy.”

Zuko smiled. He would never understand how he had gotten so lucky to have Uncle in his life. He would never feel he deserved such kindness and unconditional love. “Thank you, Uncle. Please, send for me if you have any trouble or need me at all.”

“I am sure I will be fine.” Iroh winked, “I may be an old tea shop owner now, but I remember a thing or two about official palace business. Have fun, nephew. Goodnight, everyone!”

With that, Iroh left them, and Sokka went to scour the palace for Sake. The rest of them retreated to Zuko’s room, and Sokka returned shortly after with his arms full of expensive palace booze. Aang insisted he would play babysitter for the night, his culture frowning upon such indulgences. Toph had also opted out, claiming she’d rather stay completely sober to watch the rest of them make fools of themselves. That left Sokka, Zuko, and Katara to share in the copious amounts of alcohol retrieved by Sokka.

Katara proclaimed that she was going to take it easy, but it wasn’t long before she was giggling and red-faced. As it turned out, neither Sokka nor Zuko were very good at holding their liquor, and it wasn’t long before the three of them were all properly sloshed and giggling at Aang’s exaggerated impressions of Bumi.

“Ok, ok, wait. Let me do Iroh.” Sokka stood on shaky legs and Zuko threw him a subtle look as if to say, ‘ _tread carefully’_. Sokka cleared his throat dramatically before hunching down to Iroh’s height, already earning a laugh from Aang and Katara.

“Where is my tea?” Sokka proclaimed in a terrible impression of Iroh’s voice. “Zuko, my pride and joy, all I want is your happiness. But you make terrible tea! And you know what they say, life is like a leaf. And when that leaf is turned to the sun, you must make tea!”

They all broke down in laughter—Zuko’s more reserved than the rest of them—as he sat back down proudly.

“That was a good one, Sokka!” Aang laughed. “Who else can you do?”

“I could do one of those desperate girls throwing themselves at Zuko.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Zuko tauntingly who glared back at him, although with no real malice.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Seriously, Zuko, these girls are so pathetic. They’re all like,” he changed his voice to a high-pitched and girly impression as he leaned closer to Zuko, stumbling slightly and putting a hand out to catch himself at the last minute. It fell onto Zuko’s thigh and Zuko glanced down at the way it gripped there. If Zuko weren’t decently drunk himself, he would’ve been close enough able to smell the alcohol on Sokka’s hot breath which tickled his face as he spoke.

“ _Ooooh, kiss me Zukoooo!_ _Kiss me!_ ” He made an exaggerated kissy face at Zuko, so close that if Zuko had leaned in just a _little_ more, they really _would_ be kissing. It took everything in Zuko to hold back.

“Shut up,” Zuko grumbled, though he was smiling nervously through it, “That’s a terrible impression.”

“Hey, let’s play truth or dare!” Katara changed the subject suddenly with an excited smile.

“Yeah!” Aang agreed, at the same time Zuko complained, “I’m nearly _twenty_.”

“Aww, what’s the matter Zuzu? Scared?” Sokka smirked at him challengingly. Zuko stuck his tongue out, swaying slightly in his spot, but went along anyway. He was too drunk to really protest that much, after all.

“Sokka, truth or dare?” Toph took the opportunity, smiling evilly.

“Dare.” Sokka faced her boldly.

 _Even drunk, he has the heart of a fearless warrior_ , Zuko swooned internally, before aggressively reminding himself to _Get a grip for Spirits sake._

“I dare you to find that grumpy guard from earlier and tie his shoelaces together.” Toph smirked, and Aang, Katara, and Zuko immediately burst out laughing.

“Wha—no way! He’ll kill me!” Sokka protested desperately.

“Nah, Zuko would stop him before he could _kill_ you. Right, Zuko?” Toph laughed.

“Probably.” Zuko smirked at Sokka. Sokka shot him a look of utter betrayal before resolutely standing and sneaking out into the halls.

“Come on!” Aang gestured to them all to follow and they stuck there heads quietly out of the door to watch as Sokka dramatically snuck down the hall towards the guard, his back pressed against the wall stealthily.

If Sokka was sober, he almost definitely would have been able to pull off the feat. Zuko knew that much. In his current state, however, he got about one foot from the guard before hiccupping loudly, his hand flying over his mouth in fear as the guard spun around angrily.

“Hey! Who goes there? What do you think you’re doing?”

“Uh, nothing! I mean—Fire Lord Zuko is my friend, don’t hurt me!” Sokka yelped dumbly as he turned on his heel and hurried back to the room where his friends had collapsed in a heap on the floor, laughing loudly at his expense.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Sokka pouted as he sat back down, crossing his arms in annoyance. “You know, I totally could have taken that guy, anyway. I just didn’t want to hurt one of Zuko’s people.”

“That’s very considerate of you Sokka. And also a complete lie.” Zuko smirked at Sokka. Sokka frowned back for a minute as everyone calmed down.

“Alright then, Mr. Know-it-all. Truth or dare?”

“Ummm, truth.” Zuko picked. No way was he picking dare with Sokka so annoyed, he was sure he’d end up apologizing to his staff for the next week over whatever he would be forced to do.

Sokka looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, almost nervously, “Have you ever hooked up with someone you just met?”

“Ooooh,” Toph cooed dramatically, and Zuko rolled his eyes, blushing.

He knew Sokka was thinking of the girls he had seen the past few days. He was probably as curious as they all were whether anything physical had happened on any of the dates. However, Zuko could think of only one person that he had ever done anything like that with. And he had sworn to himself he would never talk about it—but something about being like this with his friends, combined with the alcohol flowing through him, made him feel so warm and easy that the words were flowing from him before he was even thinking about it.

“Yes.” He responded casually, tilting his chin to look at Sokka challengingly.

“Ooooh!” Now Toph, Katara, and Aang all hooted at him and he laughed as he blushed even more with the admission.

“Who?” Sokka asked, his expression a strange mix of morbid curiosity and something else completely unidentifiable.

Zuko took a deep breath and then said, “Jet.”

They were all silent for a moment, their eyes growing wide in surprise.

Aang suddenly bounced up. “ _Jet_? Our Jet? That same Jet?” his face split into a wide grin. Sokka and Katara were both staring at him, their jaws hanging in disbelief.

“Yes, that Jet. We met on the boat to Ba Sing Se.”

“And you—with _Jet_?” Katara finally asked, sounding thoroughly in shock.

“Yeah.” Zuko shrugged, looking downward. He was starting to think that maybe this had been a bad idea. Maybe his friends wouldn’t be as ok with it as he thought.

After another beat of silence, Toph burst out laughing.

“Oh, that is awesome, Sparky! I bet Katara is like, _so_ jealous right now!”

“I am not jealous!”

“Wait, did you have a thing with Jet too?” Zuko asked curiously.

“No! I mean, we didn’t have a _thing_ we just… kissed.”

“You and Zuko shared a man!” Toph laughed loudly.

“Zuko, I can’t believe you were with Jet! That guy was such a weasel snake!” Aang had thrown a look at Katara, who was now blushing, but now turned back to laugh at Zuko.

“Wait. So you guys don’t care that I was with a man… like that?” Zuko cut them off suddenly, looking around at all of them anxiously.

“Of course not!” Aang quickly assured him, “We care that it’s _Jet_. Zuko, the air nomads accepted people of all orientations. They believed love transcended the human form.”

“Yeah we don’t care Zuko.” Katara quickly agreed at the same time Toph said “Of course not, you should love whoever you want to love, Sunshine.”

Zuko looked shyly to Sokka, who had remained silent in quiet disbelief. He seemed to snap out of it, shaking his head quickly. “Of course we don’t care, Zuko. I just can’t believe you hooked up with _Jet_.” Sokka wrinkled his nose in disgust at the name.

“What’s so wrong with that?” Zuko frowned challengingly.

“I mean, it’s _Jet_. That guy was the worst. It’s bad enough my little sister fell for him, now my—Zuko was with him too—”

“Your Zuko?” Toph smirked at him knowingly, which both Sokka and Zuko chose to ignore.

“I mean, seriously, is that the kind of guy you’re into? Because let me tell you, you could do much better than—hey!”

Sokka’s words were cut off and muffled as Zuko launched across the room to smother him with the pillow that he had been using lean against. They tussled for a moment before Aang hopped in with a shout of “Pillow fight!” and suddenly all of them were giggling and attacking each other with pillows, making a complete mess of the usually pristine room.

Not long after that, Sokka passed out and Aang and Toph dragged him off to bed, bidding the others good night. Only Zuko and Katara were left, passing the bottle back and forth and lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling as they laughed and traded memories.

“Do you remember what you said when you first came to join us?” Katara giggled, her head leaning against Zuko’s arm as they stared upward.

“Ugh, yes.” Zuko cringed at the memory.

Again, social interactions, not his forte.

“Say it.” Katara laughed harder at Zuko’s discomfort.

“No.”

“Come on, please?”

“No!”

“Zukoooo.”

Zuko sighed before finally relenting. “Hi, Zuko here.” He recited, clearly unamused.

Katara broke down in laughter and Zuko couldn’t help but smile at her unrestrained joy. He was glad they could laugh at the memory now. It hadn’t been so funny when it was happening.

“I was so worried about getting you guys to like me.” Zuko admitted, wincing as he took another shot directly from the bottle.

“Well, we didn’t.” Katara admitted bluntly.

“Yeah, I know.” Zuko laughed.

“We do now, though.”

“Thanks. I like you all too.”

Katara laughed loudly. Meanwhile, Zuko felt a confession bubbling up inside him. He had been bursting with this secret for years now. He was beginning to feel like if he didn’t tell someone, he would quite literally explode. And now, lying on the floor with one of his best friends, his inhibitions pleasantly lowered, and freshly out to his friends, he felt the words bursting from his throat before he could stop them.

“I especially like your brother, though.”

Zuko didn’t know what he expected, but he was surprised when Katara simply shrugged at his admission and took another swig from the bottle. “Sokka really likes you too, Zuko. You guys are great friends.”

“No, no.” Zuko sat up, frustrated that he wasn’t getting his point across. “That’s not what I meant. Like, I _really_ like him.” When Katara continued to stare at the ceiling in confusion, Zuko sighed and spelled it out.

“Like, I’m in love with him. I’m in love with Sokka.”

Finally Katara sat up, her eyes wide. She blinked once, and then put a hand to her head, almost falling back down on the floor with the rush of sitting up so quickly. Zuko caught her just in time, slipping one arm behind her back to steady her as she let her head catch up with the rest of her. Finally, she opened her eyes and stared at Zuko in surprise.

“You’re in love with my brother. You’re in love with _Sokka_?”

 _Oh, crap._ Zuko thought. He forgot how protective Katara could be. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her—they were friends now, sure, but maybe she still didn’t entirely trust him.

“Um, yeah.” He responded awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked resolutely away from her. “Are you mad at me?”

Katara snorted and his head snapped back to her in surprise. She was laughing at him, and he felt his face heat up in shame. “No, of course I’m not mad at you!”

“Oh. You aren’t?” Zuko looked at her hopefully.

“No, Zuko, why would I be mad?” She laughed and hit his arm. “I just can’t believe you like my _brother_.” she wrinkled her nose slightly at the thought, and Zuko realized it wasn’t because of him. It was just because it was her _brother_.

“Oh.” Zuko’s shoulders fell in relief and he smiled along with her as she laughed. When she finally calmed down, she slumped against his shoulder and he smiled down at her as she closed her eyes sleepily.

“Actually, now that I think about it, I can’t really think of anyone better for Sokka. You guys would be really great together.”

Zuko blinked at her in surprise. “Well, I’m not going to _do_ anything about it. I just needed to tell someone—get it off my chest you know?”

She pulled back and looked at him in surprise. “What? Why not?”

Zuko shrugged, looking down bitterly, “What? Tell him how I feel only to have him reject me and then make things awkward for the rest of our lives? Why would I _do_ that?”

“What makes you so sure he’d reject you?”

Zuko stared at the ground, responding in a small voice, “Why wouldn’t he?”

“Zuko—”

Zuko looked up in surprise at the firmness in Katara’s voice. Despite her intoxicated state, she was looking at him with clear, determined force.

“You need to stop beating yourself up all the time. You’re an incredible person, a wonderful friend, and an amazing leader. You’ve been through so much that would ruin so many people, and you came out of it strong and brave, and most importantly _kind_ and compassionate. And furthermore, you have so many people you love you. _Including_ me and _including_ Sokka. So be a little nicer to yourself, ok? For our sake.”

Zuko could do nothing but look back at her and nod. He knew he was hard on himself—he heard his father’s voice in his head all the time telling him he wasn’t worthy, and there were plenty of times that he believed it. But he was starting to argue back with it, with the help of his friends. It was a slow process, but he _could_ feel himself changing. He wanted to tell Katara how much her support meant, how much _all_ their support meant, how much he loved her too. He felt another confession bubbling up in his throat—

Oh no, wait. That was vomit.

And as he turned away from her to grab the closest bin and hurl his guts up, he felt her small, comforting hand on her back, and for once in his life he felt deserving of her love.


	5. Chapter 5

At breakfast the next morning, no one treated him any differently after his confession about Jet, and no one made any mention of his secret in front of Iroh, which Zuko was incredibly grateful for. Katara smiled at him gently as he greeted her, but otherwise gave no hint of their conversation last night. He did notice out of the corner of his eye, however, that she kept sneaking pointed glances between him and Sokka, who was sitting to his right and speaking far too loudly for his liking.

Zuko spent the rest of the morning desperately fighting off a hangover before he was supposed to meet Zo for his next date. By the time he met her in front of the palace, he was feeling slightly weak, but no longer had a searing headache, nor felt uncomfortably nauseous. He smiled politely when he greeted her and invited her to stroll through the palace gardens with him as they chatted.

He was actually enjoying their conversation, and his head felt light and pleasantly distracted from all of its usual concerns, when he saw something across the gardens that distracted him. Zo was in the middle of telling him about her family, but he was hardly listening as he noticed Sokka training across the bushes.

Sokka had no shirt on and _God_ had he bulked up since the last time Zuko had seen him. He had built up a pleasant sheen of sweat as he kicked and hit at the training dummy in front of him. He seemed to be working through some of the issues which he had refused to talk with Zuko about the previous night. He was grunting as he aggressively sent blow after blow flying towards the dummy.

Zuko bit his lip and tried to control his breathing as he watched.

“So then I went to live with my grandmother for a few years, which wasn’t so bad, except for—”

“Uh, Zo?” Zuko cut her off, taring is gaze away from Sokka with great difficulty.

She blinked at him in surprise. “Yes?”

“Um, I’m really sorry, but I just remembered something I, uh, have to attend to today. Or, er, now.”

“Oh.” Zo blinked at him in disappointment, and Zuko would’ve felt more guilty if his head wasn’t still swimming with visions of Sokka.

“You remember your way out, right?”

Ok, Zuko was officially being a jerk. But he really couldn’t help it. Not with Sokka shirtless and sweating some twenty yards away.

“Sure. I’ll see you around, Zuko.” Zo turned away in annoyance. And, ok, Zuko definitely deserved that.

“Yeah, sure. Sorry about that.” Zuko was already turning to walk towards Sokka as Zo threw a miffed ‘whatever’ over her shoulder.

Sokka had his back to Zuko and was still furiously attacking the dummy as Zuko approached. He cleared his throat subtly, but Sokka didn’t seem to hear, remaining focused on pummeling his faux opponent.

“Need a sparring partner?” Zuko announced himself more loudly.

Sokka jumped slightly as he turned towards the disruption. Zuko was smiling awkwardly at him and Sokka paused, blinking in surprise before leaning down to grab the towel he had set on the ground to wipe some of the sweat from his chest and neck.

Not to be weird, but Zuko would’ve _loved_ to be that towel.

“I thought you had your date today.” Sokka said, and Zuko shrugged.

“She had somewhere she needed to be.”

“Oh, sorry.” Sokka didn’t really sound sorry, and Zuko smiled at him.

“Don’t be. I’d much rather spar with you.”

Sokka’s face broke into a bright smile, which Zuko returned as he stripped out of his robes, leaving him in just his pants. Much better for fighting. They bowed briefly to each other, then went to stand at opposite sides of the training grounds, assuming their stances.

Sokka held up a threatening finger as he glared at Zuko. “Remember, _no_ jerkbending.”

“You have my honor.” Zuko put a hand to his chest reassuringly.

Sokka smirked. “And we all know how important that is to you.”

Suddenly he was running at Zuko with an over the top battle scream. Zuko easily side stepped him, sticking out a foot to catch him as he ran. Sokka jumped over the leg and turned, hands up and ready to attack again.

Zuko smirked challengingly, “You’ve improved since the last time we sparred.”

“Oh, I have so got you this time.” Sokka smirked back, advancing on Zuko with a few well-placed kicks. He landed a couple solid hits before Zuko caught him under the leg with his own and sent him flailing to the ground.

“But not that much.” Zuko grinned.

Sokka huffed and stood up, brushing himself off. “Alright, let’s go again.”

“Oh, I really couldn’t beat you twice.” Zuko quipped, and Sokka narrowed his eyes as he once again got into fighting stance.

Zuko mirrored him, and they circled each other for a minute before Sokka threw a punch toward Zuko. Zuko ducked and stepped around Sokka, looping his arms under Sokka’s armpits and pushing his head down so that he had him in a solid hold, his chest pressed firmly against Sokka’s back. Sokka squirmed in Zuko’s hold for a minute, crying out in frustration, before ducking and successfully flipping Zuko onto the ground, following him so that he landed straddling Zuko, who now lay flat on his back, both of his arms pinned above his head in Sokka’s firm hold. They stared at each other, frozen in that position and both panting heavily from the effort. In his head, Zuko could have sworn he saw Sokka slowly leaning down, at an almost glacial pace. Zuko swallowed thickly, trying to catch his breath but hypnotized in Sokka’s laser-focused gaze.

“You guys having fun?”

Zuko and Sokka’s heads both snapped up to see Katara staring at them, smirking with her arms crossed over her chest. Aang was with her, smiling happily and looking blissfully oblivious to the obvious tension in the air.

In a second, Sokka was scrambling off of Zuko like he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. He coughed as he offered Zuko a hand to stand up, which Zuko accepted, brushing himself off as Sokka helped him to his feet.

“Just sparring.” Sokka muttered, turning to look to the side as his entire face turned a bright shade of red. Zuko’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. A wave of panic hit him as he thought that maybe Sokka could tell what Zuko was thinking while he was pinned underneath him.

“Hey, Zuko, while you’re out here, can you show me that new firebending move you were telling me about?” Aang asked excitedly.

Zuko coughed, attempting to clear his head of all thoughts involving Sokka (not an easy feat), and turned to Aang.

“Sure.” he said, trying to sound casual as he assumed his firebending stance.

As he showed Aang the new moves, he was incredibly conscious of both Katara and Sokka’s gazes burning into his back. Katara wouldn’t have told Sokka his secret, right? She would never do that to him.

_Right_?

He finished showing Aang the move and worked with him as he slowly mastered it, letting the distraction of firebending take his worries away from Sokka for the moment.

“Nice work, I think you’ve got it.” Zuko nodded at Aang approvingly, who smiled and bowed to Zuko respectfully as Katara and Sokka approached them again.

“Enough training for today.” Zuko sighed as he toweled the sweat off his body. “I guess I’ve got to go get cleaned up for the date I have to go on later today.”

Out of the corner of his eye he could have sworn he saw Sokka rolling his eyes as Katara frowned at him.

\----*----

Zuko spent the next week continuing his dating process and spending time with his friends and Uncle whenever he could in between. By the end of the week, he was completely exhausted but had built up tentative relationships with at least three of the women (Zo had been pretty much out of the picture since he blew her off to spar with Sokka the other day).

He was enjoying some time alone with Uncle, sipping tea and catching up on the hectic past few days, when his friends loudly stormed into the room and interrupted.

“Look at this insanity!” Sokka was waving several Fire Nation newspapers as he entered, and not the respectable kind. Mostly tabloids, gossip magazines… The kind of stuff you only read when there’s nothing else lying around.

Zuko squinted at the words being waved in his face and reached out to still Sokka’s hands, clearly annoyed.

“Maybe if you stopped waving it around like a crazy person, I’d be able to.”

Sokka rolled his eyes but stopped waving the papers, instead holding them up so that Zuko and Iroh could read them.

All of the headlines were about Zuko and his many dates, spreading gossip about which girl Zuko was really with and speculating about future wedding bells between one or another of them.

Zuko rolled his eyes. “They’re gossip magazines. They just take out of context photos and speculate on the facts.”

“To be in the public eye is to be the subject of public speculation.” Iroh added wisely. “It is best to ignore these things.”

Sokka instead chose to ignore Iroh as he opened up one of the tabloids and started reading out loud, to everyone else’s general annoyance.

“Fire Lord Zuko was spotted last evening on yet ANOTHER romantic date with none other than Irulah Yao, daughter of General Ho Yao. The pair were seen getting touchy with each other in the palace gardens, and inside sources tell us that the Fire Lord is quite smitten with Irulah’s charms. Could there be wedding bells in their near future?”

“Sokka, who cares what they write? We _know_ what’s true and what’s not.” Katara was crossing her arms and frowning at Sokka in frustration. It was clear that they had been arguing about this all morning.

Sokka flipped to another article and plowed on, ignoring her as well. “Despite being spotted more often with Irulah Yao, many Fire Nation citizens think that it is Zamuh Li that the Fire Lord should be with. We talked to one enthusiastic citizen who had this to say.” Sokka switched to a whiny, high pitched imitation of the girl’s voice as he mocked her, “I think Fire Lord Zuko and Zamuh are so cute together. She’s, like, the perfect height for him, and he seems so sweet around her. I really think they make a great pair!”

“Sokka.” Aang looked like he was nearing the end of his patience, further indication that Sokka had been at this for a while. “It’s just gossip. Why do you care?”

“Why do I care?” Sokka spluttered defensively, “Because it’s an _invasion of privacy_. They don’t know anything about the situation _or_ Zuko—”

“ _Exactly_.” Katara stopped him firmly, “But we do. And that’s all that should matter.”

“Sokka, I appreciate your concern for my privacy,” Zuko cut in, confused as to why Sokka was making such a big deal about the tabloids. “But I really don’t care that much about the gossip. To be honest, it’s a lot better than the stuff they used to write about me.”

Zuko didn’t miss the look of concern his uncle gave him at this, but he ignored it and plowed on.

“You really just learn to ignore that kind of stuff.” he finished with a shrug.

Sokka frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly still in a huff but not willing to press the issue further, at least for the moment.

“I’m sure there will be plenty more gossip in the weeks to come, Sokka.” Iroh smiled kindly, “You’ll do best to ignore it, as my nephew says. Here, sit and have some tea. I’m sure you will feel much more relaxed afterwards.”

Sokka huffed as he plopped down in the seat, arms still crossed stubbornly. He knew better than to deny Iroh when he offered tea. The others followed his example and soon the conversation was flowing more easily, just as Iroh predicted, over several steaming cups of jasmine tea.

“You should take your friends to the abandoned city today, nephew. I’m sure you could all use a break.” his uncle suggested at length.

“Sure.” Zuko shrugged. He hadn’t been to the abandoned city in years. “If you guys want to, of course.”

“What’s the abandoned city?” Aang sounded excited.

“It’s an area outside of the capital that used to be another small city. It was abandoned when it flooded hundreds of years ago but the buildings are all still there, covered by wildflowers and vines. Uncle used to take me there sometimes when I was younger.” Zuko explained, smiling softly at the memory.

Iroh was smiling as well, his eyes shining with fondness. “It’s a great place to explore. Although you must be cautious. I remember taking Zuko there once when he was very small and having him wander off when my back was turned. He climbed up to an old window and nearly fell out. I found him hanging by the seat of his pants and crying inconsolably. He sobbed the entire way home—I had to carry him the whole way back because he wouldn’t let go of me.” Iroh chuckled at the memory. Zuko turned red in his seat, burying his face in embarrassment.

“Thanks for that, Uncle.” He mumbled sarcastically as the others laughed at him.

“That sounds awesome! I say we go and try to recreate that memory!” Toph was laughing.

“That sounds like fun.” Katara said, wiping a few tears of laughter from her eyes. “Let’s go.”

They arrived a few hours later, riding on Appa’s back and touching down in a beautiful field of wildflowers, scattered with deteriorating stone buildings.

“Wow.” Katara breathed, looking around, “This is beautiful.”

“These building are so cool.” Toph exclaimed, “C’mon Twinkle Toes, let’s explore!”

Aang happily followed after Toph as they began poking around buildings, while Katara stooped to gather a bouquet of wildflowers to bring back for Iroh. Zuko was left with Sokka, and when he turned to look at him, he was gazing around the field in wonder.

“So, what do you think?” Zuko asked awkwardly.

“It’s amazing.” Sokka breathed. He turned back to Zuko. “So your uncle used to take you here?”

“All the time.” Zuko nodded, “Sometimes with my cousin Lu Ten, when he was still alive. We didn’t come as much after he died, but we did a few times.”

Sokka nodded, staring at his feet quietly for a moment before looking back to Zuko. “Did you ever come here with your dad?”

Zuko looked at Sokka challengingly. “A few times, yeah. Mostly when I was a lot younger, almost too young to remember. We had fun though.”

Sokka looked at Zuko and wordlessly nodded, his face giving no indication as to how he felt about that.

“What, are you going to judge me for it?” Zuko provoked him, perhaps a bit too harshly. He couldn’t help feeling defensive about his relationship with his father ever since his and Sokka’s late night conversation.

Sokka’s gaze softened and he responded with a gentle “Of course not.” That took Zuko so aback he had nothing to say even as Sokka turned to look back out over the fields. “It is beautiful here.”

“Yeah.” Zuko agreed, his voice catching in his throat. “It is.”

Sokka turned back to look at Zuko with such a penetrating gaze, Zuko had to fight not to look away. “Really beautiful.” He muttered quietly, still looking at Zuko with an almost sad expression before turning to follow after Aang and Toph.

Zuko was left to stare after him and wonder exactly what had just happened when he felt someone’s hand softly on his elbow. He jumped slightly and turned to see Katara staring up at him pointedly.

“You should tell him.” She said.

Zuko looked at her for a minute before shaking his head. “I can’t.”

Katara sighed, looking disappointed but knowing. For a minute he wasn’t sure what she was doing, but in a flash, she had lifted her hand up and extracted the water from the flowers she had picked, flicking it into his face with a _splash_.

“Hey!” Zuko jumped back, blinking the water out of his eyes and shaking his head as Katara laughed. “No fair! You know I can’t firebend back at you!”

“Oh, so you’re admitting your useless without your firebending then?” Katara taunted, a mischievous sparkle in her eye.

Zuko narrowed his eyes, contemplating for a minute before launching himself forward to grab her around the waist, lifting her feet off the ground and twirling her around while she giggled and tried to wriggle her way free.

“Hey! Talk about no fair! Put me down!” She was laughing even as she protested, and Zuko couldn’t help but laugh along with her.

“Hey! Children!” Toph yelled, interrupting them, and Zuko put Katara down gently as they turned to her, “Come help me! Aang and Sokka have decided to race-climb the tallest building and I have a feeling this can only end badly for Sokka!”

Zuko and Katara laughed as they ran after Toph. Zuko realized happily that despite everything, his heart hadn’t felt this light in years.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit's goin down

The next day, Iroh had gone off for a walk, and Sokka had gone down to the market to pick up some more polish for his boomerang. The rest of them were happily relaxing in the palace. Katara was laughing softly at something Aang had said as he weaved some of the flowers she had picked at the abandoned city yesterday into her hair. Zuko and Toph were sitting nearby, sharing a pot of tea and chatting contentedly. It was all peaceful until Sokka came bursting in with something clenched firmly in his hand. His eyes were ablaze as he pointed a finger accusingly at Zuko.

“You! You’ve got some serious explaining to do, Zuko!”

Zuko looked around at the rest of them for help, but they all looked as confused as he felt. He held out his palms defensively. “What did I do?”

Sokka crossed his arms and scowled in Zuko’s direction, refusing to meet his eyes. “I was walking by the tabloid newsstands this morning and I saw something _very_ interesting.”

“Sokka, not this again.” Aang rolled his eyes and stood up, taking a step towards Sokka. “I thought we already agreed that the gossip in those papers doesn’t matter.”

“Oh?” Sokka turned on Aang, his eyes flashing angrily, “So I guess you don’t care that Zuko’s in _love_ with your girlfriend?”

“ _What_?” Aang asked in disbelief at the same time Katara scoffed, “Zuko is not _in love_ with me!”

Sokka cleared his throat dramatically and began to read as Zuko watched him, his eyes scrunched in confusion. How on earth did they get the idea that he was in love with Katara?

 _They have the wrong sibling_ , Zuko thought humorlessly.

“Fire Lord Zuko was spotted the other day _frolicking_ with the Avatar’s presumed girlfriend, Katara of the Water Tribe. Despite his recent dates with respectable Fire Nation women, Fire Lord Zuko seemed unable to keep his hands off Katara as they laughed on their recent outing. Is this just a passing fling, or the sign of a more serious relationship to come?”

“Sokka, that’s ridiculous!” Katara was laughing incredulously, standing to move beside Aang, who was looking from Zuko to Katara conflictedly. She looked at Aang desperately. “Aang, you’re not actually believing this, are you?”

“How do you guys explain this, then?” Sokka held the paper up to Katara and Aang. Zuko moved to look at the paper himself. On it, he was smiling as he hoisted a laughing Katara in the air. The way it captured them did look rather incriminating, but it really wasn’t anything too damning.

Aang’s eyes, however, widened in betrayal as he spun to face Zuko. “How could you? I thought you were my friend!”

“What?” Zuko took a step backwards, looking between Katara, Aang, and Sokka desperately. “You can’t be serious! That photo is nothing! We were just messing around!”

“Now that I think about it…” Toph stood up and crossed her arms suspiciously, “When I called out to you guys the other day, you _were_ pretty close.”

“Yeah, we were close, but we weren’t _doing anything_. I’m not in love with Katara, that’s insane!”

“Well I don’t know if it’s _insane_ ,” Katara looked mildly offended, and Zuko rolled his eyes at her.

“Katara, come on, help me out here.”

“Right, sorry.” She put a hand on Aang’s arm. “Really, nothing was going on, sweetie. I promise.”

Aang frowned and pulled away slightly, looking back to Zuko accusingly. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have feelings for you. What about the other night when we all went to bed and you two stayed alone in Zuko’s room? What were you trying to do, Zuko?”

“I wasn’t trying to _do_ anything.” Zuko defended himself. “We were just talking!”

 _This would all be so easy to clear up if I could just tell them what we were talking_ about _,_ he thought frustratedly.

“It’s easiest if you just tell the truth, Zuko.” Sokka was still glaring at him, and Zuko wanted to tear out his hair in frustration. This was all _his_ stupid fault. In more ways than one.

“The _truth_ is that I don’t love Katara! I love you, you asshole!!”

“I DON’T—wait, what?” Sokka had started to yell back, but as soon as he realized what Zuko had said, he faltered. Sokka’s eyes grew wide as he processed his words and Zuko felt his heart drop into his stomach. He felt vaguely like he was going to be sick.

Everyone else was deathly quiet and the atmosphere in the room had suddenly grown so thick and tense, Zuko thought he might suffocate. He desperately searched his brain for some excuse, some way out of what he had just confessed, but he kept coming up blank. He could feel his entire face turning red hot.

“I—I said that I love you. I’m in love with you.” Zuko took a step backwards and stumbled slightly, looking around panicked at his friends. Katara was looking at him worried and he felt like he was swallowing around mouthfuls of cotton when he managed to speak again. He didn’t dare look at Sokka.

“And obviously I know you don’t feel the same way, which is fine, so I’m just going to go—”

He turned to flee the room but someone had grabbed his arm. He found himself being spun around to come face to face with Sokka, who’s eyes were full of something like wonder.

“Wait! Zuko, stop for a second!” Sokka begged, and Zuko found his feet rooting firmly to the spot, just because Sokka had asked him to. He still wished desperately that the floor would open under his feet and swallow him up.

“Zuko.” Sokka sounded exasperated and Zuko prepared himself to be let down easily. He almost wished Sokka would yell at him instead—that would make the inevitable rejection so much easier.

“Why do you think I’ve been in such a weird mood since I’ve gotten here? Why do you think all my picks for your dates were so horrible? Why do you think I was so upset about all that stuff with your dad?”

“Um—I figured you were mad at me or something.” Zuko said, his voice coming out sounding small. He noted that Sokka was still holding onto his elbow.

“It’s because I’m in love with _you_ , you idiot. I’ve been in hell the past few weeks watching you go out with all these different women. Reading all the gossip about how in love you are with them, knowing that by the end of my time here, you would be married to someone else! I figured I was so obvious you must have known, and you were trying not to acknowledge it because you didn’t feel the same way.”

Zuko’s brain was currently short-circuiting.

All this time, Zuko thought Sokka was mad at him, or that he knew how _Zuko_ felt about _him_. And Sokka was in love with him?

The whole time?

“I—you’re in love? With me?”

“Yes.” Sokka laughed in soft amazement, and to his horror Zuko realized that he was tearing up slightly. He felt more than saw Sokka reach out to brush his tears away with the pad of his thumb. Before he could pull it away, and before Zuko could even think about what he was doing, he had reached out and grabbed hold of Sokka’s hand, kissing the knuckles softly before dropping it to the side, still holding onto it tightly. Sokka leaned in slowly, examining Zuko’s face as he got closer until Zuko felt his own eyelids flutter shut. He felt Sokka’s hot breath tickle his lips, and then Sokka’s lips ghosted over his own before pulling back. Zuko chased them, capturing Sokka’s lips in his own and kissing him desperately, for every sleepless night he had laid awake imagining doing the very same thing. He felt Sokka’s hand tangling in his hair, pulling him closer, and he almost forgot that they had an audience until Toph exclaimed,

“Finally!”

Zuko and Sokka pulled apart quickly, both blushing as they remembered everyone watching.

“Wait, what do you mean finally?” Katara turned on Toph. “Did you know too?”

“ _Too_?” Aang exclaimed, looking at Katara, “You knew they liked each other?”

“Zuko told me, the night we all got drunk.” Katara confessed, “Did Sokka tell you or something, Toph?”

Toph shook her head, “You sighted people are so blind sometimes. I knew the second Sokka got here and both of their heart rates went through the roof. I was waiting to see if one of them made a move ever since.”

“Wait, then why did you side with Sokka when he was accusing me of liking Katara?” Zuko challenged her, still holding onto Sokka’s hand. He didn’t think he would ever let it go.

“Hey, just ‘cause you like Sokka doesn’t mean you didn’t like Katara too.” Toph shrugged casually, “Maybe you have a thing for Water Tribe folks.”

“By the way, Sokka, I never want to hear another word about me and Aang being ‘oogie’ with each other again. That was quite the display.” Katara was smirking at both of them, and Sokka rubbed the back of his neck, blushing self-consciously.

“Yeah, well, whatever.” Sokka mumbled, “At least I don’t call Zuko _sweetie_.”

“Give it a month.” Katara smiled wickedly between them and Aang laughed loudly.

“This is so great!” Aang smiled at both of them. “And hey, now Zuko doesn’t have to worry about getting married!”

“Oh shit, I forgot about that.” Zuko cursed, finally letting go of Sokka and taking a step backwards. He couldn’t possibly ask Sokka to marry him so quickly. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sokka, but maybe Sokka wasn’t sure yet. And either way, it was all just so _fast_.

“Um, I guess you don’t want to—I mean, I couldn’t ask you so quickly to—” Zuko stammered, staring at Sokka’s feet.

“Zuko.” Zuko looked up to see Sokka smirking at him teasingly. “This is the worst proposal of all time.”

Zuko’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You mean you—you really want to—?”

“Ok, so I guess I’m going to have to do it then, huh? I can already see how this relationship is going to go.” Sokka winked at him as he got down on one knee and took Zuko’s hand. Somewhere behind him, he heard Katara gasp excitedly.

“Zuko, I’ve loved you for years now. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need any more time to know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, considering the circumstances, will you marry me?”

Zuko’s face split into the biggest smile he’d felt in years. He couldn’t stop smiling even as he said “Yes, of course.” And surged forward to meet Sokka’s lips once more. His friends cheered around him and they pulled apart slowly this time, beaming at each other like neither one could believe they had gotten so lucky.

“So what’s next?” Aang was practically jumping up and down with excitement. “A wedding?”

Zuko blinked, letting the real world come rushing back to him as he remembered his duty to his nation and, more importantly, to his family.

“No. First I need to talk to my uncle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to pop in and say thank you so much to everyone who's been reading/commenting/etc! It really means the world! :))
> 
> Also I know it's weird that they're getting married so quickly-- it feels weird to me too hahah but considering the circumstances in the fic it's just gonna have to happen ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I thought briefly about finessing it so they could ignore the law and not get married but it was just easier/more dramatic in the end this way, so it is what it is.
> 
> This was a shorter chapter but I think there'll be about two more chapters after this one. Thanks again I hope everyone has been enjoying the story so far :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter! Yes I sort of stole the marriage scene from Pirates of the Caribbean what of it? Yes its super cheesy but who's gonna stop me?

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Sokka squeezed Zuko’s hand reassuringly. Zuko nodded. They were waiting outside of his uncle’s room.

“I’m sure.” He said, “I need to do this on my own.”

Sokka nodded, letting go of his hand and kissing him once, quickly, before stepping back. “I’ll be right out here if you need me.”

Zuko smiled weakly before knocking softly on the door.

“Yes?”

“Uncle?” Zuko opened the door a crack, peering his head inside. “It’s me. Can I come in?”

“Of course, nephew! Please, come join an old man for a cup of tea.”

Zuko smiled fondly and squeezed Sokka’s hand one more time before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him.

“Hello, Uncle.” He greeted as he sat down and accepted the warm beverage being pressed into his hand. “Thank you.”

“Of course. So what brings you to me tonight? Is there something on your mind?”

Zuko breathed deeply, trying to calm his erratic heartbeat. _Better to get it over with quickly_ , he thought.

“Yeah, actually, there is.” He looked down at his shaking hands and tried his best to steady them.

“Is everything alright?” His uncle sounded concerned and Zuko almost laughed because, for once in his life, everything actually _was_ alright.

“Yeah. Things are great actually.” Zuko began, setting the teacup down and instead lacing his hands together to try to keep them from shaking. “Um, you know about my whole marriage dilemma, of course. Well, I’ve actually found someone who I’m in love with that I want to marry. And um, they said yes.”

“Zuko, that’s wonderful news!” His uncle patted him on the back happily. “Who is she?”

Zuko swallowed nervously. _Here it goes,_ he thought. “It’s actually not a she. I mean, he’s not a she. He’s a he.”

His uncle was looking at him expectantly. _You’re making no sense,_ Zuko thought, _spit it out!_

“It’s Sokka, actually. I’m in love with Sokka.”

His uncle blinked at him, silent for a moment, and then nodded approvingly.

“I see. Well, he’s got quite a wit, that one. You’ll never be bored.”

Zuko stared at him, bewildered.

“So you don’t—you don’t care? That Sokka’s a man, I mean?”

“Well, I don’t see how that’s any different than when you were seeing Jet. Although I have to say, I think Sokka is much nicer than that man.”

“You knew about Jet?” Zuko balked at Iroh.

“My dear boy,” Iroh chuckled happily before grinning mischievously at his nephew, “I know everything.”

“So you—you don’t think I’m a disgrace for liking men?” Zuko asked in a small voice, shrinking back slightly.

“Oh, no Zuko. Of course not! I hope that I’ve never given you the impression otherwise.” His uncle sounded guilty at the mere thought, and Zuko was quick to assure him.

“No, no. You haven’t, uncle. I just thought, that maybe, you’d be like my father with that kind of thing—”

“Zuko.” Iroh cut him off fiercely. “You must know that I love you no matter what. I only want for you to be happy. If Sokka makes you happy, well then, I am happy.”

Zuko smiled weakly at his uncle, sighing in relief as Iroh reached out and gathered Zuko in a firm hug. He shut his eyes and allowed himself to be held through his shaky breaths as he let his tears fall freely. When he pulled away, Iroh reached out to wipe the last of the tears from Zuko’s cheeks.

“Thank you, Uncle. For everything.”

“Of course, my Zuko. That is what I’m here for.” Iroh smiled brightly, “Now, bring in my new nephew-in-law from behind that door and let me talk to him!”

\----*----

“I don’t know, Uncle.” Zuko was pacing nervously in front of the throne room doors, surrounded by his friends and Uncle. “Qian is one of those who supported reinstating the marriage-ban when it was proposed during my father’s reign. What if he tries to say that the marriage won’t count to save the throne because it’s between two men?”

“Your birthday is tomorrow, Fire Lord Zuko.” Iroh reminded him firmly. “You must announce your choice to the court today or it will be too late! And if he disagrees, he has no legal standing in the matter. It’s all his opinion. That’s all.”

“We’ll all be right there with you, Zuko.” Katara assured him, grabbing his arm. “If anyone tries to challenge you, they’ll have to get through all of us.”

Zuko nodded at her, and then turned to Sokka, who had dressed in the formal Water Tribe ambassador robes. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Sokka nodded, determined. “I’m ready.”

Zuko took a deep breath in and walked into the throne room, the others following closely behind. He took his place on the throne and faced Qian, who was sat with his son Pantu on his right, and a handful of like-minded generals on his left

“Thank you, everyone, for coming today.” Zuko began, using the authoritative voice he usually reserved for such meetings. “I’d like to call General Qian to come forward to address the concern he raised three weeks ago regarding my marital status.”

Qian came forward boldly. Zuko noticed his friends bristling at his presence out of the corner of his eye and felt another rush of affection for them.

“General Qian.” Zuko bowed his head tersely.

“Fire Lord Zuko.” Qian bowed deeply, though his tone lacked any form of respect.

Zuko took a deep breath and reminded himself to stay calm. “I have considered the concerns you raised over the marriage law very carefully.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Qian smirked.

“And I’m happy to say that I do indeed plan to marry by the end of the day.”

“What?” Qian hissed, his eyes growing wide. “That’s impossible!” He composed himself quickly, before smiling at Zuko charismatically. “I mean, Fire Lord Zuko, truly you would not want to marry without love?”

“I’m not.” Zuko challenged him firmly. “I am in love, and I will be marrying Sokka of the Water Tribe by the end of the day today.”

Sokka stepped forward, his eyes shining bright with steely determination as he glared at Qian.

Qian stared in disbelief for a moment, before scoffing and exclaiming. “You cannot be serious, Fire Lord! A man? And a Water Tribe peasant, at that?” he spat both adjectives like bitter insults and Zuko stood defensively.

“You will show respect for my future husband, General!”

“This marriage does not count! You cannot marry a man and expect to still rule this nation!” Pantu jumped up to stand behind his father.

“I can, and I will!” Zuko yelled back, growing agitated. They were losing time, quickly closing in on midnight.

“There is no law which says they cannot marry.” Iroh stepped forward angrily, defending his nephew and Sokka.

“What else would I expect from a retired disgrace of a general.” Qian spat in Iroh’s direction and Zuko stepped forward furiously.

“You’re way out of line, Qian.” He felt his hands heating up, itching to throw flames in the disgusting, sneaky man’s face.

“And I guess you get your disgrace from him.” Qian turned on Zuko. “If your father could see you now. Marrying a man. He would be _disgusted_ with you.”

“Father!” Pantu suddenly exclaimed, his own hands alighting suddenly with flames. “They can’t get married if they don’t make it to the courthouse in time! If we hold them off until then the throne will fall to me naturally!”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Katara finally stepped out of the shadows. The general’s eyes widened as he noticed the Avatar and his friends already assuming a fighting stance, but he determinedly gestured to his own crew over his shoulder and they were on their feet immediately.

Pantu threw the first blow, aiming a fire blast at Sokka, which Zuko bended away from him with his own blast of flames at the last second. Sokka stepped back in shock, blinking for a minute.

“Pretty sure my eyebrows are gone after that one.” He said before charging forward with a scream to launch himself into the nearest general.

Zuko began throwing his own blasts towards Pantu, who dodge them skillfully, sending his own fire at Zuko. Katara ran out and quickly came back trailing a stream of water from the fountain outside behind her. She began using her water whip to disarm as many of Qian’s men as she could get to while Toph sent chunks of the floor flying in their direction. Iroh had joined Zuko as they blasted Qian and Pantu side by side.

In all of the commotion, Zuko had glanced up at the clock to see the time was now 11:55PM.

“They’re stalling!” Zuko shouted over the ruckus. “It’s almost midnight! We’ll never make it to the courthouse!”

“Wait!” Katara called as she sent a shower of sharp ice shards flying down one of the generals. “Iroh, can’t you technically perform a marriage by Fire Nation law as a general?”

“A retired general!” Qian spat, though there was fear building in his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter!” Aang remembered excitedly, “If you were a general once, you can perform marriages!”

Zuko looked around at his Uncle desperately. “Quick, Uncle, you have to marry us!”

“Right now?” Iroh called incredulously over his shoulder as he fended off another attack from the rear.

“Yes, right now! Hurry!” Sokka hurried over to grab onto Zuko. Zuko quickly shoved him to the ground as he reached him to save him from another flame blast, before pulling him back to his feet.

“Thanks.” Sokka breathed.

“Anytime. Uncle, quick!”

“Ok, ok! Uh…” Iroh sent a huge flame wall across the room, driving out a few of Qian’s men, “Dearly beloved… and not so beloved… we are gathered here today…”

“I think you can skip most of the fluff, Uncle!” Zuko shouted, his back pressed against Sokka’s as they battled off men from either side.

Toph sent one general who had been running at Iroh flying as she blasted the earth from under him upwards.

“Phew,” Iroh wiped his brow. “That was a close one. Thanks, Toph.”

“Um, General Iroh, sir, do you think you could speed it up at all?” Aang was fighting off three men from every side and Katara came rushing to his aid.

“Right, sorry! Zuko, do you take Sokka to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold as long as you both shall live?”

Zuko looked over his shoulder to where Sokka was kicking a man in the face and smiled fondly. “I do.”

“And Sokka, do you take—” Iroh yelled as he sent a blast flying directly at Qian, who funneled it around himself at the last minute, “Do you take Zuko to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold as long as you both shall live?”

“Zuko, watch out!” Sokka shoved Zuko out of the way of a close fire blast, toppling them onto the floor so that he was staring into his eyes as he said, “I do.”

“Then by the power vested in me by the Fire Nation—” Iroh dodged a blow from the right, “I now pronounce you—” he dodged another attack, “I pronounce you—” He sent a blast of fire at Qian with a shout, successfully singing his clothes, “I pronounce you married! You may kiss!”

Aang quickly sent a blast of air in their direction, blowing away all of the incoming attacks as the two of them kissed, surrounded by swirling water and fire and chaos in every direction—a perfect metaphor for their new union.

“Aang, quick, help me freeze them!”

In a wordless communication, Aang and Katara pulled the water from the ground and encircled all of Qian’s men, including Pantu and Qian himself, and froze them in place in an instant.

Zuko sighed in relief, hunching on the ground for a moment before allowing Sokka to help him to his feet. He walked determinedly toward Qian, his eyes full of fire.

“General Qian, you and your son are hereby under arrest for attacking the Fire Lord and the Avatar and for conspiring to steal the throne. You can say hit to my father in prison, if you admire him so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter after this to ties everything up! I'm aware how corny this was but it is sort of a silly story :)   
> Thanks to everyone for reading this far!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final chapter! thanks so much to everyone who has read,commented, liked... it means so much! I hope you enjoy the final chapter! (:

“Are you sure you want to do this, Zuko? You don’t have to if you aren’t ready, you know.”

Zuko stood out front of his father’s cell, breathing tightly and gripping Sokka’s hand hard.

“I know.” He said, staring at the door. “I’m ready. I want to start a new chapter of my life with you, and I think I need to let go of him to do that.”

Sokka squeezed his hand back. “I’m proud of you.”

Zuko closed his eyes and forced himself to take three deep breaths before he dropped Sokka’s hands and pushed the doors open.

He walked in, Sokka trailing tensely behind him, and found his father sat on the opposite side of the bars where Zuko stood, facing the wall.

“Father.”

He heard the cruel smile in his voice when his father replied, “Well, I was wondering when I’d see you next, Zuko.”

His father turned, raising an eyebrow in slight surprise when he noticed Sokka standing behind Zuko’s shoulder, glaring daggers at him.

“Oh, you brought one of your little friends that helped toss me in here, how nice.”

He felt Sokka take a challenging step forward and spoke up before his father could rile Sokka up anymore.

“I came to say goodbye, father. This is the last time I’ll be visiting you in here.” He said evenly.

His father scoffed, clearly amused. “Sure, Zuko. I’ll see you again in a month?”

“I mean it.” Zuko clenched his fists, standing firm in front of Ozai’s cell. “I don’t need you anymore. I’m done waiting around to see if you’ll ever love me.”

“That’s very noble of you, son. And utterly untrue. We both know you need me. You’ve never been able to cut me out of your life, no matter how hard you try— it’s because you’re weak.”

“I am not weak!” Zuko felt himself losing control, flames escaping his nostrils as he breathed out angrily. He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down, focusing on the solid feeling of Sokka’s hand on his shoulder. “I’m not weak, and I’m not scared of you.”

Ozai suddenly lunged across the cell, reaching for Zuko, and Zuko scrambled backwards, eyes wide in surprise and fright, falling back into Sokka’s arms. Zuko blinked, gathering himself, and noticed Ozai was cackling at his fear.

“See.” Ozai smiled. “You’ll never be free of my hold on you, son.”

Zuko pulled himself up and suddenly crossed the cell, grabbing Ozai by his shirt collar and pulling him firmly against the bars of the cell. “I’m not your son anymore. And you were never my father. Goodbye, Ozai.” Zuko put the hand that wasn’t holding onto Ozai onto the metal bars of the cell as he spoke and heated them until he could feel the warmth radiating off of them. He let go of Ozai abruptly, and watched as he jumped away from the hot metal with a yelp of surprise.

He looked at Ozai one last time, his eyes full of contempt and hatred, before finally turning on his heel and walking out with one last goodbye. Sokka hesitated—Zuko knew he had plenty he wanted to say to Ozai—but after a moment turned and followed Zuko out with no more than a murderous “I hope you rot in here” directed in the old Fire Lord’s direction.

As they walked out of Ozai’s cell, they could hear him screaming after them.

“You’ll be back! You’ll be back to face me like a man, instead of cowering behind bars! Go, run away! I never did love you anyway!”

Zuko walked out of there so fast, his eyes scrunched up against Ozai’s yelling, that Sokka had to jog to catch up with him outside of the prison. They finally broke out into the calm, quiet night air, and Zuko turned away from Sokka, breathing erratically.

“Hey.” Sokka said gently, putting a hand on Zuko’s back. Zuko turned and fell into Sokka’s arms, shaking pathetically, and Sokka simply gripped him back, rubbing his back and running his fingers through his hair and whispering soothingly until he calmed down.

“You’re ok. I’ve got you.”

When Zuko finally calmed down enough to speak, he pulled back and rubbed his eyes, feeling the shame creep up his spine almost immediately.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Hey,” Sokka cut him off sharply, before softening his tone. “Don’t apologize, ok? Don’t apologize for anything. You were so brave in there, and I’m so, _so_ proud of you.’

Zuko nodded wordlessly, feeling weak and tired as he let Sokka grab onto his jaw and kiss him softly. He dropped his head against Sokka’s shoulder, already feeling his eyes drooping shut in exhaustion.

“I wanna go home.” He mumbled against Sokka’s shoulder.

“Sure.” Sokka said, pressing a kiss to the top of Zuko’s head. “Let’s go home.”

\----*----

“I can’t believe you have to leave already.” Zuko was saying softly to Sokka as the rest of the gang hugged Iroh goodbye and loaded the last of their things onto Appa.

“Only for a few weeks. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Sokka had business back home. Zuko had business here. It wouldn’t be an easy marriage, but they would make it work.

Zuko smiled sadly and pulled Sokka in to kiss him one last time. “Maybe next month I can ask Uncle to take over as interim Fire Lord for a few weeks and you can show me your village in the Water Tribe.”

“I would love that.” Sokka smiled softly, cupping Zuko’s hand in his face lovingly as if he didn’t want to let go of him.

“Alright, love birds, ride’s leaving.” Katara called out to them, although even she sounded reluctant to separate them.

Zuko walked over to the rest of them and began hugging them goodbye.

“We’ll see you soon.” Aang promised, “Right?”

“Sure.” Zuko nodded, really hoping it was true. He smiled at Katara as she hugged him. “We won’t let it be so long this time.”

“You better not.” Katara poked his chest. “We’re family now. Officially.”

“We always were.” Toph said, coming to loop her arm through Zuko and Katara’s happily.

“Yeah. We always were.” Katara agreed with a nod.

“Take care of him, General Iroh.” Toph said, directing a punch at Zuko. Iroh was staying with Zuko a few weeks long before returning to his tea shop.

“You know I always do.” He winked, coming to put an arm around Zuko.

“Alright, well. This is it.” Aang said reluctantly as they all climbed up on Appa. Sokka pecked Zuko one more time, pulling him in for one last firm hug and whispering “I’ll see you soon” before climbing up on Appa.

“Goodbye!” Iroh waved at them all. Zuko smiled sadly and waved as well as he watched Appa lift off. The last thing he saw as Appa disappeared into the sunset was Sokka’s sad eyes drifting away from him.

Zuko sighed and hung his head as they disappeared out of sight.

“Come, nephew.” Iroh patted Zuko on the back. “A walk will do you good.”

“Alright.” Zuko agreed and allowed his uncle to lead him back through the gardens.

They walked for a while, watching the sun set and chatting idly, until Zuko claimed he was tired and bid his uncle goodnight. He walked back to his room slowly, his heart heavy. He entered the dark room and noticed with a start a shadowy figure standing by the door.

“Who’s there!—Sokka?”

His husband was rushing across the room and gathering him in his arms before he could process it.

“I don’t understand, what are you—”

“I can’t be apart from you. Not yet at least. I’ll—take care of my business from here, or you can come with me. I don’t know, we’ll figure something out. All I know is I can’t leave you yet.”

Zuko’s heart swelled. He didn’t know what else to say, so he pulled Sokka to him and kissed him senseless until they both fell backwards into Zuko’s bed. Sokka smiled down at him, propping himself up on his elbows and peppering his face with kisses, before slumping back into the bed next to Zuko.

“Maybe we could figure it out tomorrow, though. I’m pooped.”

Zuko nodded in wordless agreement, smiling as he curled up next to Sokka and let his eyes drift shut. He fell asleep to the sound of Sokka’s gentle snoring, his head rising and falling on Sokka’s chest.

For the first time in years, Zuko slept through the night peacefully.


End file.
